Live updates from Bernie Sanders’ rally at Safeco Field in Seattle

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Here is what’s happening:

  • Doors opened at 4 p.m. Speeches start later in the evening, including one by socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. Admission is free.
  • Commuters should expect traffic congestion near Safeco Field in the afternoon and evening. The Washington State Department of Transportation tweeted that traffic for the Bellevue-Seattle commute would be about the same as during an afternoon Mariners game.
  • Democrats across the state will caucus tomorrow, dividing up 101 delegates between Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Find your caucus location here. If you’re wondering how it all works, check out our explainer.

Additional coverage:

UPDATE, 6:26 p.m.:

UPDATE: 6:20 p.m.:

UPDATE, 6:15 p.m.:

Bernie Sanders is scheduled to speak in 45 minutes. What are the odds he could get a visit from a little birdie twice in one day?


Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., smiles as a bird lands on his podium as he speaks during a rally at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., Friday. (AP Photo/Steve Dykes)
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., smiles as a bird lands on his podium as he speaks during a rally at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., Friday. (AP Photo/Steve Dykes)

UPDATE, 6:06 p.m.:

UPDATE, 5:51 p.m.:

UPDATE, 5:45 p.m.:

Sawant is talking about her own campaign win, and leading the crowd in a chant of “When we fight, we win! When we fight, we win!”

She told the crowd to stand against “bigotry, misogyny and homophobia of billionaire Donald Trump.”

Sawant also took a shot at Hillary Clinton: “We do not need a president who has taken millions from Wall Street banks.”

UPDATE, 5:35 p.m.:

UPDATE, 5:31 p.m.:

UPDATE, 5:24 p.m.:

UPDATE, 5:20 p.m.:

Heather Yarbrough brought her 5-month-old daughter, Kaimana, and her 9-week-old pit bull puppy, Madame, to the rally. Yarbrough said that with two young children and a new puppy, she hadn’t been keeping up with the presidential campaign. “My friends have been raving for Bernie. I had to see for myself.” She’s from Kansas but is relocating to Steilacom with her husband.


Bonnie Wright, left, and Heather Yarbrough
Bonnie Wright, left, and Heather Yarbrough

UPDATE, 5:16 p.m.:

UPDATE: 5:02 p.m.:

April Sims brought her two daughters to the Bernie Sanders rally, and while waiting in the long line outside Safeco Field, she gathered signatures for a statewide initiative seeking to raise the minimum-wage.
Sims, who works for the Washington State Labor Council, a coalition of labor unions, said she had signed up at least 85 people in a couple hours.
“I’m just taking advantage of being surrounded by so many like-minded people,” she said.
Sims noted both Sanders and his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, had endorsed the proposed measure.
Initiative 1433 seeks to raise the statewide minimum wage to $13.50 per hour over four years and give workers up to seven days of “safe and sick leave” credit per year.
Daughter Niah Sims, 13, said she was excited to see Sanders.
Her favorite thing about him?
“That he’s not like Trump,” she said.

UPDATE, 5 p.m.:

UPDATE: 4:48 p.m.:

Sean Donatello, from Washington, D.C., took  time out of his vacation in Seattle to attend Bernie Sanders’ rally. He said he supports Sanders’ socialist policies including free college tuition, revamping the Affordable Care Act and his support for women and minorities. “It’s not just that he isn’t a bigot. He’s got the longest history of standing up for the little people.”


Sean Donatello
Sean Donatello

UPDATE: 4:42 p.m.:

 

UPDATE, 4:38 p.m.:


Lynn and Mike Treseler
Lynn and Mike Treseler

Lynn and Mike Treseler of Edmonds came to Seattle to support Bernie Sanders. Lynn said she feels passionate about the inequality in the country and Sanders’ message that it’s a rigged economy. “Corporations are controlling so much. The richest people are getting richer. There’s terrible poverty. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a revolution already.”

UPDATE, 4:29 p.m.:

Wearing a shirt that reads, “99% love Bernie Sanders,” T-shirt vendor Andrew Houston, 51, of Vancouver, said he had sold about 150 shirts in three to four hours outside Safeco Field.
Houston’s company, yugewear.com, donates three dollars from each shirt sale to the Sanders campaign, he said.


Andrew Houston
Andrew Houston

A sign taped to Houston’s arm displayed prices as follows:
“Bernie? Not for sale. This T-shirt? $20.”

UPDATE, 4:22 p.m.:


A group of Seattle area Sikhs wait in line for the Bernie Sanders rally.
A group of Seattle area Sikhs wait in line for the Bernie Sanders rally. Sanders’ values parallel ours, said Jaspreet

UPDATE, 4:08 p.m.:

The line from Safeco Field stretched across the street past CenturyLink Field, snaked through its north parking lot, then doglegged around a building to Occidental Avenue.

Near its end three teenagers from Mill Creek held signs reading “Gays for Bernie,” “Feel the Bern,” and “Latinxs Por Bernie.”

Miguel Carroll, 17, said by the time of the presidential election, she will have turned 18.

“So we are caucusing tomorrow,” Carroll said.

He and friends, Shione Borgal, 18, and Molica Perry, 17, said they support Bernie Sanders because he appeals to a more diverse group of people, including immigrants, gays and low income families.

“I absolutely love his consistency,” said Carroll. “You can’t see that in Hillary.”

Perry added that Sanders’ stances on the environment, reducing student debt and racial inequality issues attract her the most to his candidacy.

UPDATE, 4:01 p.m.:

UPDATE, 3:54 p.m.:

UPDATE, 1:53 p.m.:

The Sanders campaign kicked off the day bright and early with this tongue-in-cheek tweet promoting the event: