BURSTSen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) “Fighting Oligarchy” tour is headed to the deep-red state of West Virginia and the swing state of North Carolina, according to the Vermont senator’s website.
Sanders’s website states that the tour is headed to Wheeling, W.Va., on Aug. 8, Lenore, W.Va., on Aug. 9, Charleston, W.Va., on Aug. 9, Greensboro, N.C., on Aug. 10 and Asheville, N.C., on Aug. 10.
The Vermont senator’s tour comes amid deep discontent in the Democratic Party about how to move forward in the wake of last November’s election. Sanders said in a previous New York Times report that his tour 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.
A Sanders-style progressive, Zohran Mamdani, also recently made headlines in New York City when he toppled political heavyweight and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor, a shock upset.