Early Voting Event With Bernie Sanders In Milwaukee Kicks Off Week Of Big Rallies

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — a progressive icon — spent Monday morning stumping for the Democratic Party at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Sanders is one of several prominent politicians visiting Wisconsin this week including President Donald Trump on Wednesday and former President Barack Obama on Friday, just two weeks before the Nov. 6 election.

The independent senator and 2016 presidential candidate, who won the Wisconsin primary, was joined by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, gubernatorial candidate Tony Evers and other Democratic candidates.

Sanders addressed Wisconsin Democrats in calling for creating a national single-payer health care system, raising the minimum wage to $15 and addressing climate change.

He also called on young people to vote in the midterms, encouraging them — once they vote — to walk family members and co-workers to the polls.

“If each of you do that, that 1,000 votes that are here this afternoon suddenly becomes 4,000 votes,” said Sanders.

He also used the platform to tear into Trump’s policies.

“Donald Trump likes to present himself as a tough guy. He is a very tough guy when it comes to tearing babies out of the arms of their mother’s on the southern border, but he is not such a tough guy when it comes to taking on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” he said referencing a zero-tolerance immigration policy that garnered national attention earlier this year.

“He is a tough guy when it comes to cutting health care for children, not such a tough guy when it comes to the doctors in Saudi Arabia and their murder,” Sanders said in reference to the killing of United States resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Sanders ended by criticizing Trump for what he characterized as efforts to divide the country.

“This country has struggled with discrimination, and racism, and sexism and homophobia for too long,” said Sanders. “Mr. Trump we are not going backwards, we are going forwards.”

Sanders was joined by several other state Democrats including Randy Bryce, who is running in the state’s 1st Congressional District, lieutenant governor hopeful Mandela Barnes, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, Evers and Baldwin.

Each candidate took turns slamming Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and stressed the importance of protecting those with pre-existing conditions.

Evers also took a moment to tout his plan to give a 10 percent tax break to Wisconsin’s middle class families.

“‘Cause those are the people who have been struggling all along under Scott Walker,” Evers said of Wisconsin’s Republican governor to a roaring crowd.

Baldwin, who is facing a challenge from state Sen. Leah Vukmir, slammed GOP tax cuts that passed earlier this year.

“She wants to pay for this new tax law — get this — by putting Social Security, and Medicare and Medicaid on the table,” said Baldwin.

In a statement, the Republican Party of Wisconsin accused Baldwin and Sanders of wanting to put Washington bureaucrats in charge of Wisconsinites’ health care.

“Tammy Baldwin and Bernie Sanders’ extreme-liberal record is out of touch with our state,” said Alec Zimmerman, spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. “When it comes to fixing health care, we need to send a nurse like Leah Vukmir to bring our Wisconsin way to Washington.”

The most recent Marquette University Law School poll found Vukmir 10 percentage points behind Baldwin and an NBC News/Marist Poll found Vukmir trailing Baldwin by 14 percentage points.

The same poll found Evers leading Walker by 1 percentage point among registered voters. But the NBC News/Marist found Evers ahead of Walker by 8 percentage points.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 1:20 p.m. Monday, Oct. 22, 2018 with original reporting by WPR staff.