Bernie Sanders 'Stunned' By Large Crowds Showing Up For Him [View all]

[Playinghardball]

When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders took the stage at Drake University in Des Moines Friday night, he got a standing ovation. The auditorium holds 700 people and it was packed, including the balcony.

The Democratic presidential candidate is doing something on the campaign trail even he didn't expect — drawing large crowds in Iowa, New Hampshire and beyond.

"If you were to ask me a couple of months ago whether we would have larger crowds than any other candidate out there, I would not have told you that that would be the case," he said recently.

In Keene, N.H. a thousand people showed up to see Sanders speak. They couldn't all fit in the room. Same thing happened in Minnesota — except the crowd was estimated at 5,000.

His reaction: "Stunned. Stunned. I mean I had to fight my way to get into the room. Standing room only. Minneapolis was literally beyond belief."

When Kurt Meyer helped host an event for Sanders in the small town of Kensett, Iowa, he was expecting 75 people. Maybe 125 tops.

"When we had something in excess of 300 people show up, I was astonished," Meyer said.

That's more than the town's entire population. Meyer, who is the tri-county Democratic Party chair, sent a text to one of Hillary Clinton's senior people in Iowa.

"My text was 'objects in their mirror may be closer than they appear.' I sensed there was something going on," he said.

More here: http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/15/414689799/bernie-sanders-stunned-by-large-crowds-showing-up-for-him