🔰_Fighting Oligarchy_ tour garners big crowds in Republican-led areas

It's not just about me or about Bernie. It's about you all coming together in this space as we prepare for our future. That was Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Bakersfield, California, last night. This afternoon, Bernie Sanders and AOC, as she's also known, were in Missoula, Montana, where a similar scene played out, packed arena full of, we should assume, progressive supporters. We're joined now by CBS News political correspondent Nydia Cavazos, who's coming to us from Los Angeles, who has been covering this tour for CBS News. Nydia, what have you seen so far, and what do you think are the important takeaways of the size of the crowds and the kind of energy that has been visible within them? Major, what we're seeing on the ground is definitely very large crowds across this multi-state tour that Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders have embarked on. It's called Fighting Oligarchy, and what they're trying to convey here is that they're protesting against what they say is an extreme concentration of power coming from the White House. Of course, this is referring to President Trump and even Elon Musk, given his involvement that we've seen in the government since Trump took office in January. Now, we are seeing that there are many progressives who, of course, are attending as they've long supported AOC and Bernie Sanders, but what we're also seeing is conservatives who are showing up to these rallies as they say they're a bit surprised at what Trump is doing and at the speed at which everything is occurring, referring to the policies coming from Washington, D.C. And it's important to note that these rallies are being held in districts that are clearly being represented by Republicans in Congress, or that are also counties that Trump won in 2016, 2020, and 2024. So what Bernie Sanders and AOC are trying to do here is show that with these large crowds that there are many Americans who are not necessarily at ease with what they're seeing coming from the executive branch. To that point, Nydia, Bakersfield, that's Trump country. They were in Nampa, Idaho, that's just outside of Boise, also Trump country, Missoula, Montana, Trump country. And clearly, those are not the kinds of places where you would expect the local population to create crowds this large, meaning people are coming from elsewhere to get to these spots. That also has to be something worth taking note of. That's worth noting because in L.A. there was a rally over the weekend and there was a very large crowd, over 36,000 people, but of course that's expected because you might say that's L.A., tends to lean left. There are many progressives here, but what we saw yesterday in Bakersfield, California, for example, or in Idaho or Utah, is that AOC and Bernie Sanders are filling up these venues where there are many, many conservatives. These are cities that are dominated by Republicans. And yesterday in Bakersfield, California, for example, we also saw that there were many Latinos who were showing up and they're protesting what they've been seeing across the issue of immigration because Bakersfield is in Kern County and Kern County is a county that made national headlines in January with immigration rates. And so this is something that was frowned upon by many conservatives, including conservative farmers who said, just stay off the fields. And even when Border Patrol officials and immigration officials argued that this was a targeted operation. So you have an entire communities of farmworkers, farmers and residents who are witnessing what's going on. And they're not necessarily at ease. And this is why they're showing up to these rallies, considering the fact that they're not all progressives here. And Nydia, one other part of this is they're not just traveling, drawing crowds, they're raising money. That's correct. AOC managed to raise over nine point five million dollars in just the first three months of twenty twenty five. And Sanders himself raised over eleven million. And this is just in three months for AOC. This would represent her strongest quarter ever since coming into the political arena. And so this speaks volumes of what the tour is on the tour success. They're managing to make some waves here and people are being receptive toward their message with AOC, for example, over two hundred and sixty six thousand people donated. This was individual contributions with the average donation being of only twenty one dollars. And of course, this is something that they've touted along their rallies, that this is a people powered movement. And they don't necessarily have to rely on corporate PAC money and have to and therefore can actually create their own agenda and serve their people. This is their main argument, of course. Lydia Cavazos, as always, thanks so very much.