RENO, Nev. (AP) - Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders urged Nevada college students on Thursday to resist President Donald Trump and Republicans by turning out voters for Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, who is in a tight race for Nevada’s GOP-held Senate seat.
Rosen, who represents the Las Vegas area, rallied with the former presidential candidate at the University of Nevada, Reno as early voting is underway in the state.
Sanders told the crowd that their generation is the most progressive in the history of America, but their fights against climate change, sexism, racism and religious bigotry needed to translate into votes.
“All of your views and what you believe doesn’t mean anything unless you get involved in the political process,” Sanders said.
Rosen is challenging incumbent Sen. Dean Heller, the only Republican seeking re-election in a state won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Heller has won statewide races before and has more name recognition than Rosen.
She’s a first-term lawmaker working to raise her profile in places like Nevada’s Washoe County, a swing county that includes Reno.
Sanders swept the area in Nevada’s 2016 Democratic presidential caucus and remains a favorite with liberals there.
On campus Thursday, he was surrounded by a moving wall of students who tried to take selfies with him after he left the stage.
About half a dozen Trump supporters watching the rally from a parking garage nearby unfurled two Trump banners in the middle of his speech, which drew boos from the crowd.
Sanders planned to hold another rally with Rosen in Las Vegas on Thursday evening.
Heller’s campaign spokesman Keith Schipper said in a statement that the congresswoman’s rally “should tell Nevadans all they need to know about Jacky Rosen.”
“She is no ’problem solver’ or moderate, but rather beholden to the far-left leaders of her party who are determined to turn back the clock on Nevada’s booming economy,” Schipper said.
Sanders, who identifies as a democratic socialist, is on a multi-state tour helping Democrats in areas where he can motivate young, independent and working class people who backed his 2016 campaign.
David Henie, a 27-year-old information systems student who was holding a sign urging Sanders to run for president in 2020, said he plans to vote for Rosen but added, “I wish she was more progressive, to be honest.”
Henie said he aligns most politically with Sanders.
“That’s who I was really coming out to support today,” Henie said. “If he says Jacky Rosen is the way to do it, Jacky Rosen is the way to do it.”
Gail Early, a 71-year-old retired businesswoman who splits her time between Carson City and Guadalajara, Mexico, said she planned to vote for Rosen and called her “a step in the right direction.”
She said Rosen seemed sincere in her values and it was important to her that Rosen won’t just vote with the president.
Rosen has criticized Heller as a “rubber stamp” for Trump and has said she’d be a check on the president. But she’s also said she is willing to work with the president on infrastructure.
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This story has been corrected to say the rally in Las Vegas is Thursday evening, not Tuesday
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