Bernie Sanders to rally in Colorado Springs for Hillary Clinton

Bernie Sanders plans to campaign in Colorado Springs on Saturday to rally support for Hillary Clinton.

“At an afternoon Get Out the Vote rally in Colorado Springs, he will contrast Clinton’s plan to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top, with Donald Trump’s plans, which would benefit himself and millionaires and billionaires like him,” Clinton’s Colorado campaign said in a statement.

At the rally, Sanders also plans to talk about Clinton’s effort to raise the minimum wage to a “living wage, combat climate change and move to sustainable energy, make public colleges and universities tuition free, and end a broken criminal justice system,” the campaign said. “Most importantly, he will emphasize the need to defeat Trump and make Clinton our next president.”

Colorado Springs is one of the most conservative areas in Colorado.

But in February, more than 100 Sanders supporters packed into a downtown theater just to hear a Sanders field director explain the campaign’s Colorado strategy.

And a local political newcomer running a competitive campaign for a seat on the El Paso County Commission, Electra Johnson, got in the race while caucusing for Sanders in Colorado Springs.

“If it wasn’t for Bernie I wouldn’t be running,” she told The Colorado Independent in a recent story about her race.

The El Paso County Commission has not had a Democrat on the board since the 1970s.

Johnson said she is following Sanders’ lead by supporting Clinton for president.

Sanders will be at the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Art Center at Colorado College, 825 N Cascade Ave., from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Click here or here for more details.

Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence have held three rallies apiece in Colorado Springs since July. Bill Clinton has rallied in the Springs, but Hillary Clinton has not. Last month she held a rally in Pueblo, about an hour south.

In the March caucuses in Colorado, Sanders beat Clinton by about 19 points.

Photo by Gage Skidmore for Creative Commons on Flickr.