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SAN MARCOS — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that a surge in progressive turnout could deliver Texas to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and decide the balance of the Senate by electing Rep. Colin Allred in his bid to oust GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.
“It will make all the difference in the world if Colin is elected to the Senate,” Sanders said in an interview ahead of an afternoon rally at Texas State University. “He’ll give us a chance to control the Senate and begin to pass legislation that benefits working people. So I very much hope that he wins.”
Sanders visited the campus in San Marcos as part of a three-day swing through Texas that includes rallies in San Antonio and Austin, where the Vermont senator is aiming to mobilize his loyal progressive base for the November election. Joining Sanders as he campaigns up and down the I-35 corridor are New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Greg Casar of Austin, and former El Paso congressman and gubernatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke.
The progressive politicians were not joined by Allred or other Democrats running in battleground districts. Sanders, asked why he did not team up with Allred and other candidates on his trip, said he did not want to “get involved in internal Texas politics.” He added that the main goal of his visit was to turn out young voters, especially those who have never voted before, and encourage his supporters to set aside whatever objections they might have to Harris’ support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Texas has the potential to become a progressive state,” Sanders said. “But that requires young people, working class people, to stand up against corporate greed, to help us create an economy that works for all and not just the few.”
In his Senate bid, Allred has courted moderate and independent voters, adopting a platform that includes protecting oil and gas jobs and taking a more incremental approach to expanding health care access than Sanders advocates through his push for a single-payer system. Allred has also run ads that portray him as “tough” on the border and emphasize his willingness to work across the aisle — a clear contrast to Sanders’ unabashed progressivism.
Harris has also taken a more moderate approach to the border and signaled she would continue on much the same course as Biden on Gaza, saying she would “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Sanders said he understands that some of his supporters have differences with Biden and Harris, but urged them to set those aside with an eye toward Republican Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
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“I strongly disagree with them on their approach toward Gaza, for example, and other areas,” Sanders said. “But what maturity requires is to understand that what we are fighting for is not just this or that policy. It is whether or not we retain the foundations of American democracy.”
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