Sanders: ‘This is the moment’ to fight
Senator to speak at Phoenix rally, urge Arizonans to take action against Trump
Two years after losing to Hillary Clinton in Arizona’s presidential-preference election, Bernie Sanders is returning to to the state Sunday to energize progressive voters to take action against President Donald Trump and in support of their agenda.
“The message is when large numbers of people get involved politically we can make profound changes,” Sanders told
The Arizona Republic in an interview that previewed the remarks he will make at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix. “We can stop bad things from happening and we can make good things happen. And if there was ever a time in the modern history of this country where people have got to stand up and fight back, this is the moment.”
Sanders, an independent U.S. senator from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist, made an unexpectedly strong challenge from the left to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s eventual 2016 nominee. He remains popular with the party’s liberal wing.
Sanders is appearing today at a noon rally at the Orpheum, 203 W. Adams St. He will be joined by U.S. Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democrats who Sanders described to The Republic as “strong progressive members of Congress, both them friends of mine, who are doing a great job.”
Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator who is now president of the Sanders-aligned organization Our Revolution, also is scheduled to appear.
“The goal there is to remind people that we are living in unprecedented times and we have got be involved in the political process in an unprecedented way in response,” Sanders said.
No endorsements expected
Sanders apparently won’t be making a statement on Arizona’s race for this year’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, in which the Democratic establishment has coalesced around U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat. Sinema is seen as the front-runner in a race that also includes progressive candidate Deedra Abboud, a Phoenix attorney and community activist, and other lesser-known rivals.
Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake announced in October that he was abandoning his bid for a second term.
“To be very honest with you, the answer is no. I have not been following that at all,” Sanders said when asked about the Sinema-Abboud competition in Arizona.
The Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill on Friday reported that Sanders declined to endorse his colleague from California, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is facing a challenge from the left from Kevin de León, the California Senate’s president pro tempore from Los Angeles.
“It’s an issue for the people of California,” he said.
Empowering Americans
At his Sunday event, Sanders said he hopes to encourage people “to stand up to Trump’s reactionary agenda” and remind them that the Republican president is not standing with the working families, as he promised to do on the 2016 campaign trail. Rather, he “is standing with the billionaire class and, in fact, is bringing forth policies which will cause terrible, terrible harm to working families and low-income people.”
Sanders will also try to drum up new support for the progressive priorities, which he said includes increasing the minimum wage to “a living wage” of $15an-hour, making sure women are “paid equally to men for the work that they do,” making public colleges and universities tuition-free, enacting comprehensive immigration reform and finding a solution for former President Barack Obama’s imperiled Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals program.
Sanders said he believes progress is already being made on key fronts.
“The good news in my view, and what we are seeing, is we are seeing the American people much more galvanized and involved in politics,” Sanders told The Republic. “We’re seeing that in marches. We’re seeing that in large voter turnouts; we saw a large voter turnout (Tuesday) in Texas. We’re seeing that in West Virginia, where teachers in a very conservative state went on strike and, in fact, fought successfully for their rights and for the rights of their children.
“We’re seeing that in Florida where the other day the state, one of the most conservative states in this country on guns, well, took a small step forward in response to what people wanted,” he added.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, on Friday signed school-safety legislation in response to the Feb. 14 mass shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. The package includes some gun-related reforms, such as increasing the minimum legal age to purchase any firearm from 18 to 21.
Though Clinton defeated him in Arizona’s March 2016 presidential preference election, or primary, Sanders drew large crowds around the state while campaigning on behalf of himself and, later, on behalf of Clinton ahead of the general election. Trump wound up carrying Arizona and winning the presidency.
Sanders said he is hoping for a good turnout Sunday in downtown Phoenix. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. and admission is first-come, first-served. Online RSVPs can be made at BernieSanders.com.
“So that’s my message: that when people stand up and fight back, we can make some real change in this country for working people, and this is the time to do that,” Sanders said.
Nowicki is The Arizona Republic’s national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter, @dannowicki.