500 Plus Pack Los Angeles Event Featuring Sen. Bernie Sanders
Los Angeles, CA–a standing room only crowd of over 500 packed the American Federation of Musicians Local 47 in Los Angeles, Sunday afternoon March 29 to hear guest speaker Senator Bernie Sanders. The audience was visibly enthusiastic, at times chanting “Run Bernie Run!” urging him to enter the Democratic presidential primaries.
This was the latest event in Sen. Sanders’ national listening tour that launched at Progressive Democrats of America’s (PDA) 10 year anniversary celebration May, 2014 in Massachusetts. Since then, the Senator and possible presidential candidate has attracted large, receptive audiences in California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, and Iowa.
David Braun, (a co-founder of Americans Against Fracking), Trent Lange (President of the California Clean Money Campaign), and Elizabeth Warren, (Director of Communications for People Demanding Action) also spoke. Ian Masters, (Host of KPFK radio’s “Background Briefing”), served as Master of Ceremonies.
Sen. Sanders, the longest serving independent in the history of the Congress, advocated progressive and populist reforms to address economic inequality, big money dominating electoral politics, and climate change. He called for investing in people, and changing misplaced federal budget priorities. The other speakers discussed their organizations’ efforts to ban fracking, get big money out of elections, and defeating Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Conor Boylan, Executive Director of PDA, said, “Los Angeles progressives welcomed Sen. Sanders here mainly to encourage him to run for president as a Democrat. Democrats need a real alternative to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Primaries, and Sen. Sanders has a strong and consistent record of advancing progressive, populist policies.”
Upcoming events featuring Sen. Sanders:
At the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, California, March 30, 6:30 pm PDT
At the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 31, 10am PDT
At the Electrical Workers Local Union 520 Ibew AFL, Austin, Texas, March 31, 7pm CDT
Rally for Susan Sadlowski Garza, 11731 S Avenue O, Chicago, IL, April 2, 6:30pm CDT