Sanders to campaign with Baldwin, Bryce
It turns out a majority of Democrats want their candidates for Congress to be more like Bernie Sanders, according to a survey released this week by YouGov.
So, it’s no surprise that Sanders, the independent U.S. senator from Vermont, is a big draw when he hits the road.
Sanders will be in Wisconsin Saturday to campaign alongside Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Eau Claire in the morning and congressional candidate Randy Bryce in Janesville in the afternoon.
In a telephone interview Thursday with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sanders lauded Baldwin and Bryce, laid out the stakes in the election and said his focus is on the current midterms, not another run for president.
“This country faces enormous problems,” said Sanders, who defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary in Wisconsin. Baldwin endorsed Clinton in that race.
Sanders remains popular in the state among some Democrats. The YouGov poll found that nationwide, 57% of Democrats wanted their candidates for Congress this year to be more like Sanders, while 69% of Republicans wanted their candidates to be more like President Donald Trump.
Sanders said people want an answer to their problems and “are tired of establishment politics.”
“I can tell you in the world that I live in, people want candidates like Tammy who are going to stand up and fight for them and have the courage to take on the wealthy, powerful special interests.”
“The bottom line is people understand we have serious problems in this country, they want progressive leadership,” he said.
Sanders said Baldwin “is clearly one of the strongest, smartest and most progressive members of the United States Senate. What Tammy has done throughout her time in the Senate is made it clear is she is prepared to stand up for working people.”
He saluted Baldwin for backing a $15 an hour minimum wage, focusing on infrastructure and making college more affordable.
“She has been one of the leaders in opposing the Trump agenda on giving massive tax breaks to billionaires and then bringing forward a budget that would make a trillion-dollar cut to Medicaid and a $500-billion cut to Medicare and cuts to the Social Security Disability fund and to education and environmental protection.”
Baldwin faces a tough re-election fight. Delafield businessman Kevin Nicholson and state Sen. Leah Vukmir of Brookfield are competing in the Aug. 14 Republican primary.
Sanders said outside groups like the political network funded by the Koch brothers and others are “going after Tammy because she has been in opposition to their right-wing extremism.”
Sanders will be making his second appearance of the campaign alongside Bryce, who is running for the 1st Congressional District seat now held by House Speaker Paul Ryan. Ryan is retiring at the end of the term.
Bryce, an ironworker, faces Cathy Myers, a member of the Janesville School Board, in the Aug. 14 Democratic Party primary. Sanders, an early backer of Bryce, reaffirmed his support for the candidate despite a recent report on Bryce’s past legal troubles.
“When you’re in the middle of a campaign, obviously the Republican opposition research people go to work,” he said. “I think people are far more concerned about Randy’s views on how we can create living wages and provide health care for all people and improve education in this country then they are about what may have happened 20 years ago.”