Feature

Bernie Sanders Speaks to 28,000 People in Portland, While Hillary Hosts $2,700-a-Head Fundraiser

The contrast between candidates could not be more stark.

Zaid Jilani, Alternet August 11, 2015

Bernie Sanders speaks to 28,000 people in Portland, Oregon, the largest rally so far in 2015 of any candidate. (Benjamin Kerensa / Flickr)

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.

The contrast in Portland is a microcosm of the two types of campaigns Sanders and Clinton are running.

Yesterday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke to 28,000 people in Portland, Oregon, the largest rally so far in 2015 of any candidate. Sanders hit the usual marks, decrying income inequality, money in politics, climate change, and mass incarceration.

Watch his address:

Hillary Clinton also came to Portland last week for a fundraiser at the home of Democratic Party consultants Win McCormack and Carol Butler. Access was granted only to donors willing to give the minimum donation of $2,700.

The contrast in Portland is a microcosm of the two types of campaigns Sanders and Clinton are running. The former is counting on a grassroots network of hundreds of thousands of people donating small amounts of money and making up the difference with volunteer hours. The latter is a more conventional politician: court Big Money donors and flood the airwaves with television commercials to win the election. In six months, we’ll start to see which strategy succeeds.

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Zaid Jilani is the investigative blogger and campaigner for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. He is formerly the senior reporter-blogger for ThinkProgress.