- Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont just made a three-day visit to Iowa as his 2020 campaign for the presidency picks up steam.
- Sanders' held rallies across the state, the site of the first big presidential primary contest in the nation — the Iowa caucuses.
- When the senator campaigned in Iowa as part of his 2016 campaign roughly four years ago, he was an obscure figure. Fast-forward to 2019, and he's among the top candidates for the Democratic nomination for president.
DES MOINES, IA — Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is back on the campaign trail as he makes yet another run for the presidency, but there's something different about him this time around — he's considered a top candidate and is already drawing in big crowds.
"When I first came here to campaign in 2015 not a whole lot of people knew who I was, nobody took our campaign seriously, and we were at 3 percent in the polls," Sanders said during a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
To Sanders' point, a Quinnipiac University poll in late February 2015 showed Sanders with just 5% support in Iowa and 56% of voters in the state said they didn't know enough about the Vermont senator at the time.
Sanders made three campaign stops in Iowa this past weekend, hitting multiple parts of the Midwestern state. Iowa is the site of the first major presidential primary contest.
The Vermont senator visited Council Bluffs, Iowa City, and Des Moines.
INSIDER was on the ground for each rally as Sanders spoke with voters in a state he referred to as the place where "the political revolution began" in 2016.
Here's how Sanders first visit to Iowa along the 2020 campaign trail unfolded.
Sanders' first rally in Iowa on Thursday was in Council Bluffs, not far from the Nebraska border.
As attendees waited for the senator to take the stage, a band kept them entertained.
People of all ages attended the rally — college students, senior citizens, and families with children.
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