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Bernie Sanders stumps for Peggy Flanagan during First Avenue rally
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders believes discontent with the political establishment who he says hasn’t delivered for working class Americans will propel progressives into positions of power across the country — including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Sanders, an icon of the Democratic party’s progressive base, returned to Minneapolis on Monday to campaign for Flanagan, the state’s two-term lieutenant governor who is running for U.S. Senate promising to represent the “many over the money.”
He told a crowd gathered at downtown music venue First Avenue that the “eyes of the country” are watching Minnesota and other states where progressive Democrats are betting voters will chose candidates this fall who hold themselves out as fighters.
“The issue is whether or not billionaires and their greed will be able to defeat candidates who are standing up for the working class of this country,” Sanders said. “That’s what the campaign is about.”
At a rally at the iconic venue, Flanagan drew standing ovations and promised to go to Washington to fight for Minnesota, demonstrating the progressive momentum she hopes will carry her to a primary victory over Rep. Angie Craig, the more centrist Democrat in the race. The primary election is Aug. 11, and early voting is already underway.
Some of the heaviest hitters in Minnesota DFL’s progressive wing — including Sen. Tina Smith, Rep. Ilhan Omar and Attorney General Keith Ellison — came out to support Flanagan on Monday, firing up the crowd with the promise of a U.S. senator who would not back down at a time of historic strife between the state and the federal government.
Sanders and other Flanagan supporters cast her campaign as a movement of working class voters against wealthy special interests. While they railed against President Donald Trump’s administration and Republicans in Washington on Monday, they also criticized their own party’s efforts to respond.
“We got here, in part, because too many Democrats have been weak,” Flanagan said to cheers from the crowd. “What I have heard from Minnesotans is that they want their next U.S. Senator ... to be an actual fighter.
A fighter for the correct agenda. Not less. It is a double edged sword. That Flanagan would want Bernie in town. And that Bernie would show up for her.
To Crabgrass knowledge, Angie Craig rakes in the money, with no Senators showing up to boost her conservative credentials.
When the primary is over, the Crabgrass bet is Craig's millions of dollars raised cannot defeat progressive credentials, backed up by Bernie arriving to rally voters.