Rally with Bernie and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, 300 East 9th St. — Saturday, Nov. 9, 6:30 p.m.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will hold a rally on Saturday night with one of his highest-profile supporters, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The first-term member of Congress endorsed Sanders on Oct. 19 at a rally in New York City that brought a crowd of 26,000 to a park adjacent to the Queenbridge Houses, the largest public housing development in the country.
The Iowa City field office of the Sanders campaign said it expected the event at the Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center to be “our biggest rally yet.”
“I’m proud to say that the only reason I had any hope in launching a long-shot campaign for Congress is because Bernie Sanders proved that you can run a grassroots campaign and win in an America where we almost thought it was impossible,” Ocasio-Cortez told the cheering crowd in October.
She talked about the pressures brought to bear on members of Congress to support the status quo, and not challenge entrenched centers of power.
“It has been in that experience over the last nine months that I have grown to appreciate the enormous, consistent and nonstop advocacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez is not the first high-profile supporter Sanders has brought to Iowa to campaign on his behalf. In August, Sanders campaigned with actor and long-time political activist Susan Sarandon during a three-day campaign swing that included an ice cream social in West Branch.
The Coralville rally is the final event of a two-day, three-stop Iowa tour for Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez that starts in Council Bluffs on Friday.
The rally at the Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. and last two hours. The event is free, but because of limited space, people wanting to attend must RSVP online in advance.
