U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders to kick off Trump pushback tour in Nebraska, Iowa

OMAHA — Vermont progressive independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is coming to Nebraska and Iowa to kick off his effort to revive and energize the populist left after an election that saw President Donald Trump remake his coalition with substantial help from organized labor.

Sanders’ press release announcing the tour said he is eyeing “working-class” districts won by President Joe Biden in 2020 and Republican House members in 2024. That fits the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District to a tee. The tour starts Feb. 21, with a Friday evening visit to an Omaha union hall. He’s headed to an Iowa City theater on Feb. 22.

The release said he would highlight the ways that Trump and his DOGE partner, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, are threatening working people. He said Americans might not yet understand how close they are to authoritarianism, oligarchy and kleptocracy. 

He has stressed that Democrats and people on the left must pivot to talking to the working class if they aim to reclaim working-class voters from the right. Jane Kleeb, the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, is a longtime supporter of Sanders.

Sanders has argued that Trump was able to assemble a new Republican coalition of blue-collar workers, religious conservatives and traditional conservatives by appealing to social issues, but that economic issues matter more.

“Today, the oligarchs and the billionaires are getting richer and richer and have more and more power,” Sanders said in the statement. “Meanwhile 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and most of our people are struggling to pay for health care, child care and housing.”

Sanders’ announcement said his goal is to host a town hall and make sure more Americans hear that they can “fight back.” The Vermont senator is no stranger to Nebraska or Iowa, having visited both states as a presidential candidate and high-profile draw for progressives.

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., has won the slightly right-leaning 2nd District five times despite its recent blue tilt in presidential races. The 2nd District voted for Biden in 2020 and for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 after having voted for Trump in 2016 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

That matters in Nebraska because the state, unusual nationally except for Maine, splits up its Electoral College votes, awarding a single vote to the winner of the presidential popular vote in each congressional district and two votes to the winner statewide, which in 2024 was Trump.

Gov. Jim Pillen and some conservative lawmakers in Nebraska’s officially nonpartisan but Republican-controlled Unicameral Legislature are trying to shift the state to winner-take-all to reduce the chances of the red-led state continuing to split off a vote from the so-called “blue dot.”