Watch Again: Bernie Sanders Kickoff Rally At Brooklyn College

BROOKLYN, NY — Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent running for president in 2020, held his first campaign event at Brooklyn College on Saturday. Sanders, 77, was born in the borough where he attended James Madison High School and Brooklyn College for a year.

Brooklyn College is not far from where Sanders grew up. At the rally, Sanders spoke about the rent-controlled Midwood apartment where he and his family lived. His father was a paint salesman and his mother raised Sanders and his brother.

Speakers at Saturday's rally, including activist and journalist Shaun King, spoke about Sanders' early life and the activism he participated in as a college student in Chicago. Sanders himself recounted how his father, whose family had been killed in the Holocaust, came to America in search of a better life.

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"And it was a good thing that he came to this country because virutally his entire family was wiped out by Hitler and Nazi barbarism," Sanders said.

When he came to America from Poland, Sanders said his father had no money and didn't speak a word of English.

"I am not going to tell you that I grew up in a home of desperate poverty," Sanders said. "That would not be true.

"But what I will tell you is that coming from a lower middle class family, I will never forget about how money or really lack of money was always a point of stress in our family," Sanders said.

Sanders said his mother's dream was to someday move out of the rent-controlled Midwood apartment into a home of their own.

"That dream was never fulfilled," Sanders said. "She died young while we still lived in that rent-controlled apartment."

Coming from a family that struggled economically powerfully influenced Sanders' life and values, he said.

"I know where I came from," Sanders said, eliciting cheers from the massive crowd.

According to Politico, Sanders is adopting a more personal approach in 2020, talking about his family's struggles growing up in Brooklyn and his time in Chicago where he helped lead student protests against racial injustice.

Jeff Weaver, a Sanders adviser and friend told Politico that the opening tour is "an attempt to draw a connection between Bernie Sanders’ life story and the policy agenda that he is putting forward in the campaign."

Sanders announced in February that he was running for president, entering an ever-growing Democratic field of candidates vying for the party nomination in 2020. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris are all contending to be the party nominee in 2020 and run against Donald Trump.

Sanders is also holding a second rally in Chicago on Sunday.