Bernie Sanders rallies hundreds in Davenport

Independent senator calls for policies that benefit working people

By Sarah Watson,

Quad-City Times DAVENPORT — It was standing room only as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., rallied hundreds of people on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop last week in Davenport.

Sanders, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, spoke critically of America’s health care system, corporate influence on politics and what he called a broken economic and political system for the working class.

Attendees at Friday night’s event sat crosslegged in aisles and stood along the perimeter of the River Center South in downtown Davenport.

Sanders railed against Iowa’s delegation for their votes for the Republicans’ legislation dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a sweeping bill that extends tax cuts and will impose additional requirements for Medicaid and supplemental nutrition programs after the 2026 midterms.

Sanders called cuts to Medicaid “horrific” for people who become uninsured or underinsured and avoid preventive care because they can’t afford it.

The crowd rose, clapping and cheering, when Sanders said the country is facing an enormous crisis in health care and the country must “guarantee health care to every man, woman and child.”

He said no politician who voted for the bill should be re-elected, receiving another standing ovation.

One health care worker told Sanders in a Q&A portion of the event that she was concerned for her patients on Medicaid, most of whom already were working.

Another attendee called on Democrats in Washington, D.C., to do more to fight for constituents.

She said she watched Republicans in the U.S. Senate obstruct actions during Barack Obama’s administration and wanted a similar fight from Democrats while Trump is in office.

In response, Sanders, as he did throughout his speech, criticized the current campaign-financing system as corrupt.

He said Democrats should stop taking money from billionaires and start prioritizing the needs of the working class. He said he was coming to the Midwest to support strong, progressive candidates for office.

Sanders said he attended Trump’s inauguration, where Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos sat in the front row.

“We’ve got a government of a billionaire class, by the billionaire class, for the billionaire class,” Sanders said.

Sanders criticized Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts to lay off civil service employees and the administration’s crackdown on immigration.

“We have ICE agents, sometimes with masks around their faces, throwing people into vans and taking them illegally, unconstitutionally to detention centers,” Sanders said.

He also called the U.S. funding of Israel’s war in Gaza unconscionable. Sanders has introduced amendments to bar U.S. weapons sales to Israel and in June received 12 more Democratic supporters in the Senate than on previous arms proposals.

Sanders called Trump a demagogue and said the president had gone after media, law firms and universities, as retribution for wrongs against him.

“This president is a great-big bully who is afraid of people criticizing him,” Sanders said. “If you are afraid of criticism, get the hell out of politics.”

Sanders said it was not enough to criticize Trump and Republicans. Democrats and people who resist Trump must put forward a new vision for where America is going, he said.

Sanders said workers, through technology, are more productive now than 50 years ago, yet inflation continues to outpace wages and inequality continues to grow.

He outlined his vision of making colleges and universities tuitionfree, building more low-income housing to address rising rates of homelessness and costs of housing, raising the minimum wage to $17 an hour, making it easier to join unions, guaranteeing paid family medical leave, expanding Social Security and protecting gay rights.