Sanders Heading to West Virginia and North Carolina for Latest Swing of 'Fighting Oligarchy' Tour

For the first time since U.S. President Donald Trump signed his domestic policy into law, handing out tax breaks to the rich that will far outweigh those for working-class families and slashing healthcare and food assistance programs that millions depend on, Sen. Bernie Sanders will be face-to-face with voters in Republican districts this weekend for the latest leg of his Fighting Oligarchy Tour.

Sanders is headed to several towns in West Virginia Friday and Saturday and will make his way to Greensboro and Asheville, North Carolina on Sunday—all in deep red districts like those the Vermont independent senator has visited in states like Idaho and Texas as he talks to voters from across the political spectrum about "the takeover of the national government by billionaires and large corporations, and the country's move toward authoritarianism."

"I'll be heading to West Virginia and North Carolina to discuss the need for decent paying jobs, healthcare for all, and the end of a corrupt campaign finance system in which billionaires buy politicians," said Sanders.

So far, more than 240,000 people have attended Sanders' rallies, where he's been joined by musical guests and, at some stops, by other progressive leaders including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas) and United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain.

Well-attended rallies hosted by Sanders, a longtime critic of both Democratic and Republican lawmakers who take donations from billionaires and corporate interest groups, have frequently been dismissed by the political and media establishment, but the senator has argued that the crowds of people showing up to hear his message this year demonstrate that Americans across demographic divides, throughout the country, are fed up with politicians who don't fight for the working class.

"Red state, blue state—the people of this country are opposed to an economy that works for the 1% and not for working-class Americans," Sanders said Thursday.

More than two-thirds of people who have RSVP'd to the tour have been new to Sanders' mailing list, and about a third of them have not been registered Democrats. Livestreams of Sanders' Fighting Oligarchy rallies have also been viewed more than 8 million times.

Sanders' latest stops in West Virginia and North Carolina will begin days after he and his team held an online "National Training" to organize around efforts "to defeat every member of Congress who voted for Trump's disastrous budget bill and elect progressives up and down the ballot."

"We have to organize people," said Misty Rebik, Sanders' chief of staff, on the call. "Over the past several months, we have organized thousands of people to attend rallies, canvasses, office visits, town halls in swing districts across the country. We've recruited more than 7,000 people to run for office. Over half of those are running as independents."

Americans are answering Sanders' call to help defeat oligarchy and Trump's anti-worker, anti-immigrant, and anti-democracy agenda, said Rebik, because they "do not think that billionaires should control our government and they are not sitting around. And that's why President Trump's so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' has to be the defining issue of the 2026 campaign. And as Bernie has said, no member of Congress who has voted for this disastrous legislation should be reelected."

The five cities Sanders will visit this weekend are all represented by Republicans who voted for Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act and are up for reelection in 2026.

Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards, whose Western North Carolina district includes Asheville, got thousands of calls from constituents urging him to vote against the bill, with nearly 300,000 of his constituents facing the possibility of losing healthcare and food assistance as a result of its passage.