Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told Hill.TV’s “Rising” that Democrats have a chance to win back rural voters in the upcoming midterm elections.
“Absolutely,” Sanders said in response to a question about whether Democrats could win back farmers.
“Look, what the Republican Party is today — and I know some people think I’m being overly partisan, but I’m really not — this is a party that worked as hard as they could to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1 percent and to incredibly profitable large corporations,” Sanders said.
Sanders also criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) support of entitlement reform and their legislative efforts to make changes to social safety net programs.
He argued that those are all issues where progressives can make a compelling case to rural voters.
“J.D. [Scholten] can go around in the most conservative parts of this district and I doubt there are too many people who think we should give tax breaks to billionaires and cut social security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Sanders said.
Scholten is the Democrat running against Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), and Sanders has been on the campaign trail seeking to help him get to the House.
Sanders acknowledges that winning back rural America will be no easy task, saying Democrats have failed to simply show up in many parts of the country and have “conceded those states to right-wing Republicans.”
— Tess Bonn
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