U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York are pictured on stage at a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley on March 21, 2025. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
The two most prominent voices on the Democratic Party’s progressive left wing visited Colorado’s Front Range on Friday to make the case that a fight against a billionaire “oligarchy” should be the focal point of the party’s resistance to the second Trump administration.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York drew large crowds at stops in Greeley and Denver, part of a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour through multiple Western states while Congress is in recess. The Denver crowd at Civic Center Park was estimated at 30,000 people, with fences that closed off the event surrounded by spectators as well.
“In the hundreds of rallies that I have done, we have never, ever had a rally as large as this,” Sanders said. “And Denver, your presence here today is not just significant for Colorado. You are sending a profound message all over the world. The whole world is watching, and they want to know if the people of America are going to stand up to Trumpism, oligarchy and authoritarianism.”
A capacity crowd packed into the University of Northern Colorado’s Bank of Colorado Arena booed as Sanders, an independent socialist who caucuses with the Democrats, recounted his attendance at President Donald Trump’s second inauguration alongside Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and other ultra-wealthy figures with close ties to the president.
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“Abraham Lincoln talked about a government of the people, by the people, for the people,” Sanders said. “Well, Trump has a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, for the billionaires. And what these guys are busy doing right now is going after Medicaid, going after Social Security, going after nutrition. The rich want to get richer and they don’t care who they step on.”
In its first months in office, the Trump administration has attempted an unprecedented expansion of executive power, including through the actions of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by Musk. Many of its efforts — including attempted shutdowns of congressionally established agencies, mass firings of federal workers and a freeze on certain federal funds that has persisted in defiance of court orders — run contrary to longstanding separation-of-powers principles in the U.S. Constitution.
“It’s not just oligarchy we’ve got to deal with — under Trump, this country is moving very rapidly to an authoritarian form of society,” Sanders said in Greeley. “Today we have a president who is undermining our Constitution every single day, who is threatening freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.”
He expanded on the theme in Denver, saying, “People fought and died to create a democratic society,” and that Trump cannot take it away. He said the founders of America created the separation of powers because they took on “the most powerful person in the world at that time, the king of England,” and they did not want one person have “all the power” in the U.S.
“When I was in elementary school, we learned about how the government was formed, the constitutional convention and all that stuff,” Sanders said. “I should have studied it harder, but Trump should have learned it in the first place.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who has represented New York’s 14th Congressional District since 2019, urged crowds in Greeley and Denver to volunteer, join neighborhood associations and seek other ways to “build community,” which she called a powerful weapon against authoritarianism and corruption.
“Elections, they come and go,” she said in Greeley. “But in the meantime, and during, throughout, before and after all of that, we need to build our bonds with each other as communities.
“If you don’t know your neighbor, it’s easier to turn on them,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “That’s why they want to keep us separated, alone and apart. Scrolling on our phones. Thinking that the person next to us is some kind of enemy. But they’re not.”
That message resonated with Monica Fernandez Jackson, a UNC student who said she wants to follow in Ocasio-Cortez’s footsteps and run for office one day.
“Being here, it was very emotional, because we saw like-minded individuals — we’re not alone, we’re all angry,” she said. “I didn’t think things like this happened in Greeley. People would always go to Fort Collins. So it’s just like a little bit of hope.”
Later in Denver, Ocasio-Cortez said ideas some would say are “radical” are common sense to her, and that the government should fight to ensure Americans can afford a roof over their heads.
“I don’t believe in health care, labor and human dignity because I’m an extremist,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I believe these things because I was a waitress. Because I scrubbed toilets with my mom to afford school. Because I’ve worked double shifts to keep the lights on. Because I did lose my dad as a kid and had to see my mom open the hospital bills a few days later, and I don’t want us to live like this anymore. We deserve better.”
‘The working class, not the corporate class’
In Denver, union leaders including Kim Cordova, president United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7, and Liz Waddick, vice president of the Colorado Education Association, rallied the crowd around the idea of a government that helps for the average worker. They both urged the Colorado Legislature to pass the Worker Protection Act, a bill that would remove Colorado’s requirement for a second vote before workers can form a union.
Jimmy Williams, President International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, said if Democrats want to win back control of the country, they need to “represent the working class, not the corporate class.”
“The power is here to make real change — generational change, because at this point in time, this country needs a worker-driven agenda,” Williams said. “And until the Democratic Party realizes, until they realize that they have to remove the corporate control that holds them back, we have to show them what it looks like.”
Trump and Republicans get the support of some working class people because they make them feel like they are “one step away from being inside that club — that maybe one day we will be billionaires too,” Ocasio-Cortez said in Denver. In reality, she said Trump is “selling off our country for parts to the richest people on the planet.”
Treva Copeland came to the Denver rally with her 21-year-old daughter Shea and her friend, Annabelle Ott, who is 22. The trio showed up for the 5 p.m. event at 2:30 p.m. to get close to the front in the massive crowd. Treva said Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders showed more bravery than Colorado politicians, as their words reflect “the change that needs to happen,” which she said most Democrats don’t speak about.
Shea, who was wearing an Ocasio-Cortez shirt, said she appreciated that the New York congresswoman said that “the entire point is to feel distraught” and to keep fighting through those feelings.
“Because there have been a few days where I’ve felt really low because of what’s happening, and I want to fight as much as I can and stand up,” Shea said.
Battleground 8th District
The Greeley stop fulfilled a promise from Ocasio-Cortez to hold events in congressional districts where Republicans, who are pursuing a sweeping plan to cut taxes and social spending with their narrow House majority, have refused to face their constituents at in-person town halls. Republican Gabe Evans represents the 8th Congressional District, including Greeley.
“Rep. Evans, your constituents say hi!” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a social media post, with a video she took from the stage of the waving crowd.
GOP party leaders leaders have advised members not to hold town hall events, Politico reported earlier this month. Evans appears to have listened, and his spokesperson said this week that the congressman would only hold town halls “in a way that allows constituents’ concerns to be heard without being drowned out by yelling activists.”
“Usually your first three months on a new job, you are on your best behavior and working your hardest and doing your best,” Ocasio-Cortez told the rally. “If this is the best that that you all are getting, I think you deserve better.”
She blasted Evans and other Republicans for voting earlier this month in favor of a budget resolution that will force steep cuts to Medicaid — and for falsely denying that the resolution would, in fact, force the cuts.
“Every single House Republican voted to cut Medicaid,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Now they trying to play a game and say, ‘We didn’t do that.’”
The resolution requires $880 billion in cuts to be made by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid spending. Despite Evans’ claim this week that there are “a wide range of places where those cost savings can be found,” the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that Medicaid comprises 93% of the spending that could be cut by the committee. As a result, the GOP’s budget requires a minimum of $700 billion in Medicaid cuts — or a 10% reduction in projected spending — even if all other spending overseen by the committee were zeroed out.
Evans narrowly won election in the battleground 8th District last year, unseating former Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo. The district spans Democratic-leaning suburbs on Denver’s north side as well as more rural and conservative areas in Weld County, including Greeley. The district is home to a large percentage of Colorado’s oil and gas industry, and Republicans on Friday slammed the “Green New Deal” policies endorsed by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, which they said would “completely decimate (the 8th District’s) economy.”
“Congressman Evans is fighting for lower costs, safer communities, and making the American Dream possible for all Coloradans,” a spokesperson said in a written statement. “His commonsense approach stands in stark contrast to AOC and Bernie Sanders’ extreme, anti-oil and gas rhetoric.”
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