Zachary Oren Smith – Iowa City Press-Citizen USA TODAY NETWORK
This Saturday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont will be joined by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Coralville. The rally is part of the pair’s swing through Iowa hoping to capitalize on Ocasio-Cortez’s high-profile endorsement of the progressive Sanders.
This will be Ocasio-Cortez’s first trip to Iowa since endorsing him in October. In that campaign swing, Ocasio-Cortez was joined by Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan who have also endorsed the Vermont senator.
Ostensibly, this trip through Iowa is to focus
on climate change. The pair have championed the Green New Deal, a package of legislative goals ranging from weaning the United States off fossil fuels to creating high-paying jobs in clean energy industries. But Ocasio-Cortez has connected Sanders’ performance in the 2016 election as fundamental to her own journey to Congress.
“It wasn’t until I heard about a man named Bernie Sanders that I began to question and assert and recognize my inherent value as a human being that deserves health care, housing, education and a living wage,” Ocasio-Cortez told a crowd during an October rally with Sanders in New York.
“Bernie Sanders did not do these things because they were popular and that is what we need to remember. He did things
and he fought for this aid and these ends when they came at the highest political costs in America. No one wanted to question this system and in 2016 he fundamentally changed politics in America,” she said.
Roger Ouellette, the Iowa Communications Director for the Sanders campaign, said having the two stalwarts of the Green New Deal sharing the stage will prove Sanders is the choice for caucus-goers with climate on the mind.
“What we will prove to the families in Davenport and Muscatine and western Iowa, these communities devas-
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tated by flooding and the effects of climate change, they will see that they are heard and that they have a climate champion in Bernie Sanders,” Ouellette said.
A shuttle will run from the University of Iowa campus to the Coralville Marriott Hotel before and after the rally. Shuttles will transport attendees to the hotel between 3 and 6:30 p.m. with buses rotating every 15 minutes.
While the event in Coralville will not be ticketed, attendees can RSVP here.
There will be two other chances to catch Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez take the stage together:
❚ Council Bluffs: rally at 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8 at Iowa Western Community College, Reiver Arena, 2700 College Road.
❚ Des Moines: Des Moines Climate Crisis Summit at noon on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Drake University, Bell Center, 1421 27th St. Transportation will be provided to Iowa State University and Grinnell College students.
This Saturday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont will be joined by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Coralville.