Sen. Bernie Sanders to hold rally in Utah

Salt Lake City, UT (KSL) — Sen. Bernie Sanders, the winner of Utah’s Democratic presidential preference caucus vote, is coming to Utah to hold a rally as part of the national party’s “Come Together and Fight Back” tour.

Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon said while there are no details yet for the appearance by Sanders, who’ll be joined by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, it could be late next week.

Corroon said organizers are still looking for a large venue for the rally. Sanders attracted thousands of Utahns when he spoke first at This Is the Place Heritage Park shortly before the March 22, 2016, caucus vote and a few days later at West High School.

The state party chairman said the tour’s message is welcome in Utah, which overwhelmingly voted for Sanders over the Democrats’ eventual nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the caucuses.

“I think it sends a message to the Utah Democratic Party that we’re relevant in their eyes, along with other red states,” Corroon said of Utah’s inclusion in the tour, which includes stops in Maine, Kentucky, Florida, Nebraska, Montana, Arizona and Nevada.

The Democratic National Committee said the Vermont independent senator and the party chairman will hold rallies with party activists in so-called swing states, as well as states like Utah that vote reliably Republican in presidential races.

“The purpose of their trip is to begin the process of creating a Democratic Party which is strong and active in all 50 states, and a party which focuses on grass-roots activism and the needs of working families,” the national committee said in a statement.

At a time of income and wealth inequality and a shrinking middle class, Sanders and Perez said jointly that the nation needs “a government which represents all Americans, not just Wall Street, multinational corporations and the top 1 percent.”

The pair will call for raising the minimum wage, pay equity for women, rebuilding infrastructure, combating climate change, free tuition at public universities, and immigration, criminal justice and tax reform, the national party said.

That message “will help reinvigorate the Sanders supporters,” Corroon said. “Some of them obviously were disappointed with the election. My hope is the Bernie Sanders visit will help them get back engaged.”

Sanders beat Clinton in the March 2016 caucus with more than 77 percent of the vote and picked up 29 delegates. Nearly 82,000 Utahns voted in the Democratic caucus, a record.

Clinton came in second in the November 2016 vote in Utah, with 27.5 percent of the vote to 45.5 percent for now-President Donald Trump, the GOP candidate. Utah has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964.