photo by: Mike Yoder

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to a crowd Thursday, March 3, 2016 at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

Kansas Democratic Party officials finally confirmed Tuesday what many people had been saying unofficially on social media for days, that former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders will be the keynote speaker at the party’s upcoming state convention known as Washington Days in Topeka.

Sanders is scheduled to speak sometime on Saturday, Feb. 25, but the exact time and location have not yet been determined. The convention will be held at the Downtown Ramada Inn, but an official with the party said the Sanders event will be held at another location in Topeka.

“We’re incredibly excited to have Sen. Sanders as our keynote speaker for this year’s Washington Days convention,” state party executive director Kerry Gooch said in a statement. “He had so much support from Kansas, and we’re grateful that he’s coming here just for us. He’s a true inspiration for so many — and we believe he will see an amazing reception from the people of Kansas.”

Sanders, I-Vt., won the Kansas Democratic presidential caucuses by more than a three-to-one margin over Hillary Clinton but failed to win the party’s nomination. He held a rally in Lawrence that drew an estimated 4,200 people two days before the caucuses.

The state party convention is typically held sometime around Presidents Day, which is Feb. 20 this year. The major items of business are meetings of the congressional district and state committees. It also serves as a fundraising event and an opportunity for potential candidates to make announcements and start lining up support for the 2018 elections.

The two major fundraising events are an auction on Friday night and a banquet on Saturday that typically features a high-profile keynote speaker, often someone with presidential ambitions. In 2015, the keynote speaker was former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who also ran for the presidential nomination in 2016 but bowed out of the race after the Iowa caucuses. In 2008, the keynote speaker was Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who became Clinton’s vice presidential running mate in 2016.

This year, though, party officials said they will not hold a banquet and instead will host Sanders’ speech as the main event, in a venue that is still to be determined.