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ELECTION 2018
Sanders urges Nevada progressives to support Rosen to end 'one-party rule' in Washington, D.C.
By

Megan Messerly

Daniel Rothberg
October 25th, 2018 - 1:50pm
Rep. Jacky Rosen, left, and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, right, at a get out the vote rally at the University of Nevada, Reno on Thurs., Oct. 25, 2018. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent)
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders had a message for Nevada progressives facing a midterm election with a relatively moderate slate of Democratic candidates: Your beliefs don’t mean anything unless you vote.
Sanders’ remarks came at a Thursday morning rally of several hundred people at the University of Nevada, Reno during which he urged young people, who he referred to as the “most progressive generation in the history of America,” to get involved politically in a year that Democrats are fighting for every vote in an attempt to wrest control of a U.S. Senate seat and the Governor’s Mansion from Republicans. The message from Sanders — which touched on frequent themes from his 2016 presidential campaign including a single-payer health-care system, free college tuition and a $15 minimum wage — was a departure from the relatively moderate message Democrats in the state have been preaching on the trail.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders addresses the crowd at a rally at the University of Nevada, Reno on Thurs., Oct. 25, 2018. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent)
Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, told the crowd that it is important to vote this year to elect Rep. Jacky Rosen to the U.S. Senate to end “one-party rule” in Washington and stymie President Donald Trump’s agenda, including a tax reform bill he signed into law in December that Sanders said only helped billionaires. He said the wealthy Koch brothers and other Republican donors are “flooding airwaves in Nevada and all over this country” in an attempt to buy the election and ensure the government protects corporate interests instead of those of working families.
“Today we say to the 1 percent and to the billionaires that their greed has got to end and that we need a government that represents all of us, not just the few,” Sanders said. “And that’s what this campaign is about.”
The last midterm election in 2014 had the lowest percentage of voters turn out nationwide of any midterm election since World War II and led to a red wave in Nevada in which Republicans captured every constitutional office and took control of both houses of the Legislature. Sanders said turnout was so low because “a whole lot of working people, low income people didn’t vote, a whole lot of people of color did not vote and a whole lot of young people did not vote.”
“Our job in 2018 is to have the highest midterm voting, and you can do that. You can do that as soon as we’re finished right here by marching over to the Joe and casting your ballot,” Sanders said, referring to the polling location at the Joe Crowley Student Union on campus.