Bernie Sanders will be in Philly on May Day for a rally with AFL-CIO
Sanders is bringing his ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour to Pennsylvania.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will be in Philadelphia on Thursday for a May Day union rally as he embarks on a three-day tour of Pennsylvania in the same week that President Donald Trump marks his 100th day in office.
Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, has been traveling around the country in what he calls his Fighting Oligarchy Tour to speak out against Trump’s administration.
In last year’s presidential election, Trump won Pennsylvania by a little less than two percentage points after the state swung to Trump in 2016 and then Joe Biden in 2020, both by tight margins.
Sanders, a former presidential candidate, previously stopped in Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, and Montana with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, by his side. A news release announcing Sanders’ Pennsylvania appearances did not mention Ocasio-Cortez.
“Coming to this rally is just the first step in moving forward to transforming this country,” Sanders said in Idaho last week. “Donald Trump has taken us into an unprecedented moment in modern American history, and we have got to respond in an unprecedented way.”
Sanders will attend a May Day event on Thursday, hosted by Philadelphia’s AFL-CIO chapter, called the “Workers over Billionaires” rally. The event is scheduled for 4 p.m. outside the north side of City Hall. Access for the public begins at 3:15 p.m.
“Bernie knows that when the working class — labor, immigrants, community members — stand together, we are [a] force that can defeat any bad boss,” the union chapter posted on Facebook.
May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, falls on May 1 and is intended to celebrate workers rights. The day often draws protests on a range of economic and political issues.
Sanders has made 16 stops across seven states as part of his tour, 13 of them in Republican-held congressional districts, according to his campaign. The tour has drawn more than 250,000 people, and about one-third of attendees are not registered Democrats, according to his campaign.
Sanders has broken his own crowd records with the tour, and livestreams of the rallies have been watched more than six million times.
Among his stops was the Coachella music festival in California.
Following his Philadelphia appearance, Sanders will hold rallies on Friday and Saturday in two congressional districts represented by Republicans — Scott Perry and Ryan Mackenzie. Democrats have their eyes on those seats for the 2026 midterms.
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Perry, a seven-term incumbent, narrowly won reelection last year by one percentage point against former broadcast news anchor Janelle Stelson, a Republican-turned-Democrat. Stelson is expected to run for the seat again, according to the Associated Press.
Sanders will hold a Friday rally in Perry’s district at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg.
Mackenzie, a former state representative, narrowly flipped a seat in the Lehigh Valley, ousting Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild. Sanders will speak at Stabler Arena at Lehigh University in Bethlehem in the key district.
Sanders will be joined at both events by U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Democrat who represents parts of Western Pennsylvania. Deluzio fended off a Republican challenger last year by 7.6 percentage points.