SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Bernie Sanders will hold a campaign rally in Salt Lake City next Monday, a day ahead of Super Tuesday primary voting.
The Vermont senator, who has emerged as the Democratic front-runner, will speak at the Utah State Fairpark at noon. Earlier this month, the campaign announced an expansion of its Utah operation with a new staff and a state headquarters in Salt Lake City.
The 78-year-old Sanders is coming off a resounding win in the Nevada caucus last Saturday.
Utah is one of more than a dozen states holding elections on what’s known as Super Tuesday. Sanders also will travel to Minnesota for a rally on the eve of that state’s presidential primary.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is not scheduled to be in Utah before the March 3 primary, but Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., will campaign for Warren in Salt Lake City and Ogden this weekend. Former Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski will join Haaland for an event on protecting public lands. Warren, who is running TV ads in the state, visited Utah last year.
A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll of registered Utah voters last month showed President Donald Trump beating Sanders 50% to 31% in a head-to-head matchup. In the same survey, Warren got 28% of the vote to Trump’s 50% when pitted against each other.
Sanders overwhelmingly won the Utah Democratic presidential preference caucus in 2016 with 77% of the vote, picking up 29 delegates. A record 81,606 people voted in the caucus, according to the party.
Thousands of Utahns turned out for a Sanders rally before the caucus vote four years ago. Sanders also visited Utah in 2017.
The self-proclaimed Democratic socialist took the brunt of the attacks in Tuesday’s Democratic debate in South Carolina, where residents will vote in a presidential primary on Saturday.
Sanders came under fire earlier this week for telling “60 Minutes” that it would be “unfair” to say “everything is bad” about Cuba’s Communist revolution. Cuban-Americans, Florida Democrats and several his opponents rebuked Sander as too extreme in his views to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
Sanders will be the latest presidential candidate to visit Utah this year.
Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has spent $3 million on TV ads in the state, has come twice. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg held a rally in Salt Lake City on Presidents Day. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard held campaign events in the state last weekend.
Along with the three Democrats, Republican Bill Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts, also stopped in Utah last week. He is challenging President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination.