Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders appeared Saturday at the Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi, where he urged Democrats to organize around an economic message focused on affordability and income inequality.
Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer
CORPUS CHRISTI — The Texas Democratic convention could have doubled as an early audition for potential 2028 presidential candidates, with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker courting party activists.
But the marquee speaker slot Saturday went to Sen. Bernie Sanders, a reminder that firing up the party base can also hand Republicans a familiar foil as Democrats try to build a broad coalition they need to win statewide.
Sanders decried President Donald Trump, the ultra-rich and the Republican Party in a speech centered on income inequality and affordability.
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“We are going to hold them accountable for their disastrous policies. These policies have devastated working families in Texas, in Vermont and all over the country,” Sanders said of Republicans.
He repeatedly targeted billionaires, accusing them of putting greed ahead of working families.
“These are not nice guys. They are extremely greedy and ruthless, and will do anything they can to accumulate even more wealth and power,” he said.
Sanders called on activists to organize, educate and “knock on doors,” saying “the way we defeat them… is when ordinary people get involved in the political process,” adding that “you are leading us here in Texas.”
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For convention organizers, the Vermont independent brought star power and a promise of relief from rising costs and an economy they say favors the wealthy.
Democrats are betting that Sanders’ message will matter more to voters than Republicans’ efforts to make him the story.
Austin state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, the Democratic nominee for state comptroller, said Sanders’ popularity reflects the concerns animating voters, not simply his celebrity.
“Rather than looking at the cult of personality, we have to look at the context,” she said.
Republicans quickly seized on Sanders’ appearance, using it to reinforce their efforts to brand Texas Democrats as “radical liberals” who want to “California your Texas.”
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Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly tried to tie Democratic statewide candidates, most notably Senate hopeful James Talarico, to nationally known progressives, including Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Abbott’s campaign deployed that strategy at the convention, with vans emblazoned with anti-Talarico ads circling the coastal venue, pairing Talarico with Sanders and other national Democrats in grainy black-and-white photos.
Veteran lobbyist Bill Miller of Austin said Sanders’ appearance played directly into Republicans’ hands.
“It gives ammunition – a lot of it – in a very easy way to Republicans, and it just surprises me that they’re making that mistake,” he said of the Democrats.
Sanders urged Democrats to pursue an expansive agenda, including raising the federal minimum wage to $20 an hour, freezing rents, improving healthcare, expanding Social Security, curbing corporate political donations and passing “Medicare for all.”
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The proposals, he said, would begin by making “the billionaire class start paying their fair share of taxes.”
“Bottom line, let’s start investing in the American people,” he said.
Eyes on Texas
Texas remains an important stop for ambitious national Democrats, both for its fundraising potential and its influence in the presidential nominating contests.
On Friday, at a ticketed event at the convention, Pritzker zinged Trump, calling him the “reflecting pool of our politics” and criticizing the Democratic Party for broad failures in 2024, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
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U.S. Sen. Cory Booker speaks Friday at the Texas Democratic Convention at the Hilliard Center in Corpus Christi.
Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News
Meanwhile, Booker said Friday in his convention speech that Democratic success in Texas would inspire the nation.
“We are at a time in our country where we need Texas more than ever,” Booker said. “We need Texas. We need the spirit of Texas coast to coast.”