Sanders Campaign Press Release - In Arizona, Sanders Draws Biggest Crowd Yet

PHOENIX – The biggest crowd so far for any presidential campaign rally turned out on Saturday night to see Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Arizona.

A crowd of more than 11,000 people, according to Phoenix Convention Center officials, jammed a sprawling exhibit hall to see the senator from Vermont.

"This is the largest turnout…" Sanders said before the roar of the audience drowned out the rest of the sentence with cheers.

"Somebody told me Arizona is a conservative state. Somebody told me the people here are giving up on the political process. That's not what I see here tonight." Sanders told the audience in Arizona, a state that has voted for Republican presidential nominees in all but one of the past 10 national elections.

The big show of support was the latest hard evidence of a grassroots movement to take on what Sanders calls the "billionaire class." The biggest crowd before Phoenix was in Madison, Wisconsin, where 10,000 people filled an arena.

Sanders on Sunday will take his message to Texas, which has gone with the Democratic nominee only three times in the last 40 years. He plans rallies in Dallas and Houston. Next weekend he heads to Louisiana and during August will go to Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.

"Progressives will never win unless we plant a flag in these states. The Democratic Party cannot abdicate and surrender half the states in the country," Sanders said in a statement.