Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a Thursday report from The New York Times that his tour with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is meant to encourage more independent candidates to run.
“One of the aspects of this tour is to try to rally people to get engaged in the political process and run as independents outside of the Democratic Party,” Sanders told the Times.
“There’s a lot of great leadership all over this country at the grass-roots level. We’ve got to bring that forward. And if we do that, we can defeat Trumpism and we can transform the political situation in America,” he added.
According to an Instagram post from Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, the two politicians have stops in Las Vegas and Tempe, Ariz., on Thursday, Greeley, Colo., and Denver on Friday and Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday.
“This week, I am headed to Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado with @AOC, @GregCasar, and @StevenHorsford to hold town halls with working class Americans,” Sanders said in a post on the social platform X on Tuesday. “Together, we will stand strong in the struggle against authoritarianism and oligarchy. I hope you’ll join us.”
Sanders’s comments come amid turmoil in the Democratic Party about how to combat President Trump and his administration, with frustrations especially bubbling up in the last week after a small group of Senate Democrats voted to advance a Republican-crafted funding bill despite intense opposition to it from many in the party.
“If there’s any hope for the Democratic Party, it is that they’re going to have to reach out — open the doors and let working-class people in, let working-class leadership come into the party,” Sanders told the Times. “If not, people will be running as independents, I think, all over this country.”
The Hill has reached out to the Democratic National Committee and the White House for comment.
