The 2026 midterm election is a fight for democracy against the wealthy and the powerful who believe the country belongs to them, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, told about 1,200 enthusiastic people at the Abraham Chavez Theatre on Monday night.
Sanders, 85, spoke for about 30 minutes as part of his “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go from Here” tour. His talking points included the problems with the current healthcare system, runaway artificial intelligence and data centers, and the Iran War.
He talked about raising the federal minimum wage to at least $20 an hour, making it easier for workers to join their unions, building more affordable housing, and making childcare and higher education free. Teachers should make a minimum of $60,000, he said.
He also stressed that legislators need to retake a moral perspective where people treat each other with respect and dignity.
“(We) need to take on the concept that greed is good. Greed is not good,” he said with his voice rising above the cheers from the crowd. “Love is good. Empathy is good.”
Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, outlined his four-year transition plan for Medicare. He said during the plan’s first year, the country would lower the eligibility age from 65 to 55, guarantee coverage to every child in America, and cover dental, hearing and vision. Through the ensuing years, the eligibility ages would drop to 45, then 35 and then to everyone.
He said Republicans have no answers for the ills that face this country and try to hide it by fostering division within the country against minorities. He said one of the jobs of those elected this November should be to bring people together.
Christina Marmolejo said Sanders’ words inspired her. She said she was glad she attended the event with her husband and son, who voted Monday.
She said that while some call Sanders a radical, she thinks his ideas are just common sense.
“Be kind to each other,” said Marmolejo, a retired second-grade teacher from the Socorro Independent School District. She had to retire early to help take care of her mother who had Alzheimer’s disease and has since died.
“There’s no healthcare for the middle class,” said Marmolejo, who planned to vote Tuesday.
Adolfo Grajeda, a retired land surveyor, said that Sanders reminded the audience that everyone should be treated with respect. Those who are better off should help the less fortunate.
Grajeda was proud that he, his wife and three adult children are all voters. He said that he and his wife participate in as many political events as possible to include a recent “No Kings” event.
However, he added that he comes from a family with five brothers and sisters.
“There are three blues (Democrats) and two reds so we don’t talk politics,” he said before he left holding on to two Gina Hinojosa yard signs. She is the Democrat challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s re-election bid.
When speaking about artificial intelligence, he reminded the audience that the CEO’s of the major AI companies have said that they are not sure where the technology is going or if they can control it.
Sanders said that he had spoken to leaders in the field around the world about AI and they have said that sooner or later AI will become smarter than human beings.
“My wife said that’s not a very high bar,” Sanders said.
Among the goals of Sanders’ tour are to build a grassroots political movement to challenge the “oligarchs,” or the ultra-wealthy elite who use their influence to control the country’s politics, government and economy. At past stops, he has stated that the top 1% own more than the bottom 93%, with six in 10 Americans living paycheck to paycheck.
Sanders started his national tour in February 2025 in Omaha, Nebraska. This latest leg included several stops in Florida and Texas this month. Today, he started in Amarillo and the tour continues Tuesday in Houston.
Sanders’ guests in El Paso included U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, whose district covers most of El Paso; U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, whose district stretches from East Austin to West San Antonio; and El Pasoan and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke.
Escobar thanked all the people who voted during the first day of early voting and then slammed Abbott for choices she said have hurt education and opened the state to data centers.
She encouraged the audience to tell their family, friends and neighbors to remind them what is at stake in this election and the importance of their vote. Together, communities can overcome the millions of dollars that Elon Musk and people like him are pouring into Texas for the Republican ticket.
“We can fight back,” she said.
Casar, a labor organizer by trade, is chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group co-founded by Sanders in 1991. His wife, Asha Dane’el, grew up in El Paso and is the daughter of longtime University of Texas at El Paso political science Professor Emeritus Kathleen Staudt.
He said this election would affect a fundamental change of power where “corrupt” politicians in Texas would be replaced and working people would have a more active voice in government. He shared part of his speech in Spanish.
“We’re going to bring about what pundits like to call a blue wave, but everything is bigger in Texas so it’s going to be more like a blue tsunami,” Casar said.
O’Rourke said he believed that Republicans were running scared because Democrats had compiled a strong list of candidates in every statewide race. He asked the audience to take every and all nonviolent actions necessary to ensure victory Nov. 3.
Prior to the event, O’Rourke told El Paso Matters that this election has excited voters, especially in Texas, where Democrats haven’t won a statewide election since 1994.
“They know that this is the best chance we have had in three decades to win political power and to get the kind of change that we have been fighting for, and that we deserve in this state and in communities like El Paso,” O’Rourke said.
The former congressman served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2018, president of the United States in 2019, and Texas governor in 2022. In 2019, he launched Powered by People, a political action committee focused on voter registration, grassroots organizing and supporting Democratic causes, candidates and lawmakers in Texas.
O’Rourke, who has participated in several of Sanders’ Texas tour stops, said his job at these events is to give a statewide view of what he is experiencing, and to promote voter registration and voter turnout efforts.
He said Sanders sees this election as more than a contest between Republicans and Democrats, but as a struggle between top and bottom.
“(Sanders’) focus on the extraordinary concentration of wealth and power and privilege in the hands of so few, at the expense of so many, I think has captured the imagination of people across the country and in El Paso,” O’Rourke said.
Sanders, who encourages people to vote, has held elected office for most of the past 45 years. He started as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in the 1980s before voters elected him to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 and the U.S. Senate 16 years later.
He ran for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president in 2016 and 2020.
Sanders carried El Paso County in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with 36% of the vote, with future President Joe Biden coming in second with 28%. He got almost 32% against eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Sanders is known for his efforts to fight against tax cuts for wealthy people and corporations, and spending cuts for social welfare programs. He is a strong proponent of progressive issues such as universal healthcare, tax reform, free tuition at public colleges and universities, and campaign finance reform.
Amber Archuleta-Lucero, professor of government at El Paso Community College, said that Sanders has had a consistent message against unregulated capitalism and that resonates with people who are concerned about today’s economy and the inflated prices for fuel, food and health care.
“He is unique, I think, in trying to convey a message about the core principles of fighting authoritarianism and focusing on who gets what in this country,” she said.
As for Sanders’ popularity, Archuleta-Lucero said it was his relatability. She likened it to the April 1945 story of a distraught bystander who waited by the railroad tracks to see the funeral train that carried the body of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When a reporter asked if the person knew the president, the person responded, “No, but he knew me.”
O’Rourke said Texas could hold the key to which party controls the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Early voting for the Nov. 3 midterm elections is underway and will end Oct. 30.
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