‘It’s a dire time’: Bernie Sanders, AOC draw 12,000-plus to Idaho rally

Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman

NAMPA (Idaho Statesman) — The Bernie supporters were outside the rally hours before it began.

They flocked to Nampa’s Ford Idaho Center on Monday afternoon wearing gear from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ past presidential campaigns, along with T-shirts that read “resist,” “Hands off!” and “We the People.”

Attending Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop, they voiced anger about national politics: the deportations of undocumented immigrants — and people deported by mistake; rollbacks of women’s rights and access to abortion; what they see as the audacity of the Trump administration to take aim at health and other benefits, even as it slashed jobs with the Department of Government Efficiency and imposed — and rescinded — tariffs.

But in a shout-out to local issues, many wore shirts that read “Everyone is welcome here” — a nod to the classroom sign a West Ada School District teacher was told to take down in March. She refused, and the episode rose to national prominence.

“I think this represents Idaho,” said Shirley Hurley, who wore an “Everyone is welcome here” shirt to the rally, along with rainbow LGBTQ+ Pride earrings. She said she lives in Boise’s North End off Harrison Boulevard — where an annual display of Pride flags is in jeopardy because of a new law from the Republican-dominated Idaho Legislature.

Shirley Hurley wears an “Everyone is welcome here” t-shirt at the Fighting Oligarchy Tour with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and special guest U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa on Monday. “Everyone knows this represents Idaho,” Hurley said. | Sarah A. Miller, Idaho Statesman

The crowd roared its approval Monday evening when Idaho Rep. Todd Achilles alluded to Boise Mayor Lauren McLean’s decision to continue to fly a Pride flag outside of Boise’s City Hall, despite another new Idaho law banning such a display.

Hurley told the Idaho Statesman that she opposes the policies of the Trump administration, but she thinks Idaho has been taking even more extreme stances.

Thousands descended on the arena Monday with voices like Hurley’s, filling both the lower and upper tiers, and half of the floor, by the time U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took the floor around 6 p.m. She and Sanders, I-Vermont, took to the stage to decry the “oligarchy” they say the U.S. is becoming.

The Idaho Center’s capacity is listed at 12,200, depending on the arrangement of the stage. Rally organizers said they closed the venue’s doors at 12,500.

Several there to support the “Fighting Oligarchy” message expressed dread about the direction the U.S. was headed in Trump’s second term — and a sense that Sanders’ and Ocasio-Cortez’s previous warnings were coming true.

“They’ve spoken about things that people have not been paying attention to,” Silas Randall of Meridian said. “And now it feels like, I don’t want to say it’s too late, but it feels like it’s a dire time.”

Others, including Megan Pando, appreciated that the duo offered a model for taking action in opposition to the Trump administration.

“A lot of times you see, on the Democratic side, they tell you to be angry — and then just go back to their job,” she said.

Instead, Sanders and AOC have been trotting across the U.S. They were in Salt Lake City on Sunday night, will be in California on Tuesday, and will head to Missoula, Montana, on Wednesday — all part of their tour of the West.

Some on Monday said they were new to Sanders’ message and came with an open mind. Others, such as Esteban Galan of Boise, said they were longtime Sanders supporters who attended to contribute to their visibility in a deep-red state.

Democrats were “born and raised” in Idaho, Galan said. “We’re not imported from anywhere. We’re the backbone of our communities. We are nonprofit workers, we are federal workers, we are people who are investing in each other,” he told the Statesman.

Sanders’ message has long resonated in Idaho. In the 2016 presidential primary, he handily defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic caucus, which had a record-breaking turnout.

Jaclyn Kettler, a political science professor at Boise State University, said Sanders was able to tap into Idaho’s longstanding populist bent and “a real push” against elites and political insiders. It’s the same predisposition, she said, that has attracted many Idahoans to Trump.

(Trump lost the 2016 Republican primary in Idaho to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, before winning handily in 2020 and ‘24.)

Galan and other attendees said that to them, Sanders’ message was about class solidarity, not about party.

“It really comes down to, we’re fighting the billionaire class,” he said. “Regardless of ideology, beliefs or how you pray, we all are still just trying to get to the next month, from paycheck to paycheck.”

Dozens of counter-protesters set up camp outside the arena, holding Trump signs and waving a DOGE flag — a reference to the controversial department led by billionaire Elon Musk. Galan directed part of his comments to them.

“What I love about (Sanders’) message is that it’s for everybody,” Galan said. “(To) the Trump folks outside, come on inside, because it’s for you, too. You’re angry. You’re upset because America is not working for you. This is for you.”

Amber Dayley wears Bernie pins Monday at the Fighting Oligarchy Tour with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. | Sarah A. Miller, Idaho Statesman