On a weekend campaign swing to the West Coast, Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders drew the largest crowds of the 2016 primary.
Despite these huge rallies, Sanders faced some controversy on this trip over his record on race and civil rights.
Over 70,000 people came out to hear Sanders speak in Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. The Portland event drew over 28,000 people.
Sanders says his campaign is surging because the issue of income inequality resonates with many voters.
"All across this country people are sick and tired of establishment politics, establishment economics and they want real change!" Sanders said.
Not all the weekend events went so well. At a Saturday rally in downtown Seattle, Sanders left without speaking after a group of activists who identified with the Black Lives Matter movement took over the stage.
They demanded to speak to the crowd to talk about important racial issues that they say Sanders isn't addressing in his campaign.
Protesters could be heard saying, "If you do not listen to her your event will be shut down right now."
Later that evening, Sanders responded to this criticism. He said he has one of the strongest civil rights records of anyone in the U.S. Congress.
"No president will fight harder to end the stain of racism in this country and reform our criminal justice system — period!" Sanders said.
"No president will fight harder to end the stain of racism in this country and reform our criminal justice system — period!" - Bernie Sanders
Middlebury College political science professor emeritus Eric Davis says Sanders often talks about racial issues in economic terms. Davis thinks Sanders needs to address these issues in a broader context.
He should "talk more about some of the challenges that non-white Americans face outside of the fact that there may be more lower income people. Among non-white Americans but there are other challenges... and perhaps Sanders needs to think about those a little bit harder and start addressing them more explicitly in his speeches," Davis says.
Davis says the Sanders campaign hopes its new communications director can help sharpen its message to minority voters.
Symone Sanders, a 25-year-old African-American woman (who is no relation to the senator) has left her job with the Campaign for Juvenile Justice to be the chief spokesperson for the campaign.
"Talk more about some of the challenges that non-white Americans face outside of the fact that there may be more lower-income people." - Eric Davis, retired political science professor
"He knows he has work to do on that and hiring staff is certainly one way of helping it, but I think the other is campaigning more among diverse communities," Davis said.
Davis says it isn't surprising that Sanders is doing well in New Hampshire and the West Coast states. But Davis says the real test will come when Sanders campaigns in the Midwestern part of the country.
