Report: Elizabeth Warren Draws Largest Crowd of Presidential Campaign in Seattle

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass speaks during a town hall campa
AP Photo/Chris Carlson
Hannah Knudsen

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) reportedly drew 15,000 people to her event at the Seattle Center Sunday – the largest crowd since the launch of her presidential bid – according to her campaign’s estimates.

The presidential candidate was forced to move her planned Seattle event, dubbed “Seattle Town Hall,” from the WaMu Theater to the Seattle Center, which can hold more than twice the former’s 7,000 capacity. According to the campaign’s estimates, Warren drew a crowd of 15,000 attendees. A Warren campaign spokesman told the Hill that it was the “largest” event of her presidential bid:

Warren said the crowd size serves as proof that “people are ready for change in Washington.”

“They understand they’ve got a government that’s working great for the bazillionaires but just not working for them,” she said, according to the Seattle Times. “To change that it’s going to take all of us, nobody gets to stay on the sidelines.”

The Seattle Times added that Warren stuck around for hours after her speech, taking selfies with enthusiastic supporters.

Breitbart News reached out to Seattle authorities and was directed to Seattle Center officials. Deborah Daoust, Seattle Center’s director of communications, cited the City of Seattle’s policy of “going with the event producer’s attendance estimates” but added that 15,000 seemed “pretty close to the mark.”

“Campaign volunteers were ‘checking in’ attendees via a text method at the restricted point of entry, so I would think their estimates were about as accurate as they could be for an outdoor, non-ticketed event,” she said in an email to Breitbart News.

Breitbart News fact-checked the Warren campaign’s claim last week regarding her town hall meeting on the campus of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, which reportedly drew a crowd of 12,000. However, it seems the Warren campaign based the estimate, largely, on the number of RSVPs.

As Breitbart News reported:

Similarly, the Warren campaign has claimed that 12,000 people attended the Macalester event. Breitbart News has learned that the campaign arrived at that figure by counting people who sent a text message to register for the event.

However, while local news agreed that “thousands” attended the Macalester event, the 12,000 figure seemed high.

The college’s college security staff said they could not provide a crowd estimate. So Breitbart News contacted the office in charge of facilities rental at Macalester. The Warren campaign had initially rented the Leonard Center, which holds 4,000 people. That was deemed to be too small for the event, given expected attendance. So it was moved outside, to Shaw Field — the largest field on campus, with a capacity of 3,000, plus “spillover” beyond.

It seems fair to grant the Warren campaign an attendance of at least 4,000 — i.e. more than the Leonard Center. But given the size of Shaw Field, it is difficult to believe 12,000 people attended. A generous estimate would be 6,000.

Breitbart News has reached out to fire officials in St. Paul, Minnesota, who have yet to provide a figure.

President Trump recently made headlines after crushing attendance records at his MAGA rally at the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, this month, even beating Elton John’s attendance record:

A Manchester Deputy fire marshal confirmed that “attendance in the arena was about 11,500, with 8,000 people standing outside,” as Breitbart News reported.

Editor’s note: the featured photo for this article is not from the town hall at the Seattle Center on Sunday; it was taken at a Los Angeles town hall on August 21.

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