Saturday’s forecast calls for snow, sleet and rain, but the cold is unlikely to deter thousands from coming out to “Feel the Bern” at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ first 2020 presidential campaign rally at Brooklyn College.
The gathering is slated to kick off at 11:30 a.m. on the school’s East Quad at 2900 Bedford Ave.
Follow @BklynEagle on Twitter for live coverage of the event.
On Friday afternoon, the rally’s Facebook page showed 3,118 people planning to attend and another 9,477 interested in going.
“On Saturday I’m going back to Brooklyn, where I was born and raised, for the first rally of our campaign,” Sanders wrote on Twitter. “Let’s show Trump and the powerful special interests what they’re up against.”
Sanders, who is running under the slogan “Not me. Us,” has always been popular in Brooklyn. Although he moved to Vermont in 1968, he spent the first 19 years of his life in the borough and has kept his hometown roots — and certainly his accent.
“He is 100 percent Brooklyn,” Larry Sanders, the candidate’s older brother, told The New York Times in 2015.
The presidential hopeful lived at 1525 E. 26th Street in Midwood, attended P.S. 197 Kings Highway Academy, James Madison High School and eventually Brooklyn College for one year. He captained the track team at James Madison and won a borough basketball championship in grade school.
In 2017, he spoke at the commencement ceremony for Brooklyn College at Barclays Center and was awarded an honorary degree by the school.
A year earlier, Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took part in a raucous Democratic presidential primary debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders set up his headquarters inside a warehouse in Gowanus not far from the neighborhood’s notoriously polluted canal. He also played Rabbi Manny Shevitz in “My X-Girlfriend’s Wedding Reception,” in which he lamented the Dodgers’ move to Los Angeles.
Following Saturday’s debate, Sanders will be leaving Brooklyn to take part in his second rally in Chicago, where he graduated from the University of Chicago.
The rally is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, but an RSVP is encouraged. Entrance is provided on a first come, first served basis. Doors open at 10 a.m., and the event starts at 11:30 a.m.
Follow reporter Scott Enman on Twitter.
