A former aide to President Obama, who also drew big crowds during his campaign for the White House, marveled at the size of Warren’s crowds at this stage of the race.

“What Warren is doing this early on is pretty unprecedented,” the aide said, adding that Obama’s events didn’t attract thousands of people until well into the primary cycle.

“If we would have attracted crowd sizes that large early on, Hillary would have run for the hills,” the aide said, referring to Hillary Clinton, who Obama beat out in the 2008 primary.