US Senator Bernie Sanders and his progressive allies are rallying across the US in the waning days of the 2022 midterm elections, giving Democratic candidates in battleground states a final boost before Election Day.
While President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Barack Obama and other prominent Democratic officials rally voters with an urgent “get out the vote” message to drive turnout, the Independent senator from Vermont has embarked on a 19-stop tour to get his progressive supporters and younger voters to the polls.
He has repeatedly characterised this year’s elections as “the most consequential” midterms in his lifetime, warning against a wave of Republican candidates at the state and federal level who threaten future elections, the climate and the nation’s economy.
“While the Democrats are not doing everything I would like them to do, trust me, they are a million times better than what the Republicans will bring you,” he told supporters in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on 4 November.
The senator’s “Our Future Is Now” rallies, supported by NextGen America and MoveOn Political Action, wrapped tours in Nevada and Texas last week. The rallies will continue in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania through the weekend heading into Election Day on 8 November.
“To a very large degree, the future of this country, believe it or not, will depend on what happens in this midterm election,” he said.
Upcoming midterm elections will determine the balance of power in Congress and whether Republican candidates will control critical state-level offices. If Wisconsin Democrats lose state legislative races, ceding control of the state legislature’s veto-proof majority to Republican lawmakers, a Democratic governor could be functionally irrelevant.
In Wisconsin, Senator Sanders urged voters to support Democratic candidates “from the top of the ticket on down,” including US Senate candidate and the state’s current Lt Governor Mandela Barnes, who faces a close contest against Republican incumbent Ron Johnson.
President Biden narrowly defeated Mr Trump in Wisconsin in 2020. Four years earlier, Mr Trump was the first Republican to carry the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Polls heading into Election Day reflect a tightening race between Mr Barnes and Mr Johnson. A survey from Marquette Law School found the races for Senate and governor in a tossup, while polling from Emerson College Polling-The Hill put Senator Johnson four points ahead of his opponent.
While campaigning for Mr Barnes in the state, former president Obama issued a blisterning indictment of the current senator, who is seeking a third term in the upper chamber.
Opponents have argued that Republicans like Senator Johnson have criticised Social Security management as a means to undermine and gut the programme, an insurance and retirement lifeline for retired or disabled workers.
“Some of you here are on Social Security. Some of your parents are on Social Security. Some of your grandparents are on Social Security. You know why they have Social Security?” Mr Obama asked the crowd on 29 October. “Because they worked for it. They worked hard jobs for it. They have chapped hands for it. They had long hours and sore backs and bad knees to get that Social Security.”
If elected, Mr Barnes would be the first-ever Black senator to represent Wisconsin in the Senate.
While the nation’s electorate ranks the state of the economy as a major concern heading into Election Day, the message from Senator Sanders – primed on wealth inequality, women’s rights and the climate crisis – has framed inflation as a consequence of corporate greed. An analysis from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that fatter profit margins have accounted for roughly 54 per cent of inflation.
The president has also recently railed against oil and gas companies posting record profits amid climbing gas prices, urging companies to “stop war profiteering, meet their responsibilities to this country, and give the American people a break and still do very well” in a recent speech at the White House.
Senator Sanders told the crowd of mostly young people in Eau Claire at the University of Wisconsin campus that “the future of this country depends” on them, whose lives will be impacted by the results of this election “more than any other.”
“Young people today are the most progressive generation in the history of this country … You guys have been leaders in the fight against racism … sexism, against homophobia, and if we’re making any progress at all … in the struggle against climate change, young people around the world have been leading at that effort,” he said. “But part of that struggle, whether it’s women’s rights or the environment … has got to be participating in the political process.”
He condemned the US Supreme Court’s “unbelievably stupid decision” to revoke a constitutional right to abortion care and urged men to fight for abortion rights. Congressional Republicans have repeatedly introduced legislation that could impose a federal ban on abortion, proposals that have been shot down by Democratic lawmakers but could advance under GOP’s control of Congress and under a Republican president.
Senator Sanders also warned against the “existential threat” of the climate crisis, lambasted antidemocratic GOP candidates who have rejected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, and underscored his yearslong message against growing income and wealth inequality.
“There is class warfare going on,” he said. “And unfortunately the wrong side is winning that war … Our job is to take on the greed … I don’t know why someone who has $100bn thinks they have to buy and sell politicians to get even more tax breaks.”
In his closing message in Eau Claire, the senator called on his supporters to vote for Mr Barnes, re-elect Democratic Governor Tony Evers, and “let us revitalize American democracy and create a government and an economy that in this great country works for all.”
“That’s our task,” he said. “Let’s go out and do it.”
