Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez to gather democrats in dark red Kansas

TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) – Two luminaries in the democratic socialist movement – one its national leader, the other his new star – descend on Republican Kansas on Friday, taking their emboldened Liberal message to an unlikely trial ground before the congressional primaries next month.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who became famous after her surprise win at last month's congress in New York, see an opportunity to influence Democratic voters in Kansas before the 7-year-old primary. August. They are mostly concentrated on a crowded congruous primary in the suburbs of Kansas City Kansas.

In an election year set by energized democratic voters seeking to send a message to President Donald Trump, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are betting that they can stir up the liberal market in places where the left is rarely in competition. "Progressive voters and even some moderate voters have been discouraged by the lack of positive news from Kansas," said Anne Black, a 43-year-old Democratic MP from the suburbs of Kansas City.

The trip is unusual on many fronts. For one, Trump won Kansas in 2016 by 20 percentage points, making it seemingly inhospitable for Democrats, far less democratic socialists. In addition, Sanders is a 76-year-old Jewish senator from Vermont, while Ocasio-Cortez is a 28-year-old Bronx Latina who is about to become the youngest member of Congress

. at the head of an evening rally in Kansas City, Kansas, for Brent Welder, a labor lawyer who works in a crowded Democratic primary in Kansas' 3rd District. The district, represented by four-term Republican Kevin Yoder, is on the Democratic candidate list as it aims to seize the GOP-controlled House in November. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has worn the district closely in 2016.

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are also scheduled to campaign together in Wichita for Democrat James Thompson, a civil rights lawyer working in Kansas's 4th District. Like Ocasio-Cortez and Welder, Thompson was an activist for Sanders' presidential campaign in 2016.

While organizers were forced to change venues for the Wichita event due to the high demand for the Friday afternoon rally more competitive. However, Republicans are skeptical

Tom Cox, a moderate Republican from the Kansas City area, said that there were pockets of liberal Democrats in the suburbs of Kansas City, but asked if the message of Sanders will resonate more widely. He said that Democrats tend to be divided between liberals and moderates, with some unionists and sympathizers having conservative views on social issues. "Even our Democrats here are not Socialist Democrats," he said. "If someone described the 3rd District, I would say center right."

Democrats, who have been excluded from state and congressional races since 2010, have a similar debate among themselves. They must muster at least 23 Republican seats to demand the majority of the House, and they focus on 25 districts where Clinton won, or Trump narrowly won.

The main candidates for the Democratic primary for the governor said that their party needs to rebuild its brand in rural areas, strongly GOP. And despite the influx of energy among the Democrat-Leftists of the Trump era, it was difficult to know if there were enough votes in the 3rd district for that one Liberal Democrat wins

. In 2016, Clinton narrowly won in this urban and suburban district. to keep with the agricultural-rich grbadlands that make up much of this state. And before Yoder's first victory in 2010, he was detained for 12 years by centrist Democrat Dennis Moore, who relied on moderate Republicans during his tenure.

Yet Sanders and his brand of liberalism have proved popular. He won more than two-thirds of the votes in the state's presidential caucuses in 2016, surpbading Barack Obama's total votes in 2008.

But Republicans enrolled in the 3rd District exceed by more than 50,000 their Democratic counterparts. Republicans are twice as numerous as Democrats in the 4th district.

The liberals argue that they are not only convincing moderate Democrats or dissatisfied Republicans, but also new primary voters, like Ocasio-Cortez did it this summer and as Sanders did in his 2016 insurgency presidential campaign.

"If you are going to overthrow the district, you must involve new people in the political process," said Sanders spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis. "There are so many people who are not involved."

And candidates promoting Sanders' agenda have won Democratic primaries in many of these districts, such as in Orange County, California and the suburbs of Philadelphia. Democrat Kara Eastman won the May primary against former moderate MP Brad Ashford on messages similar to that of Sanders in Nebraska's 2nd district, which includes the city of Omaha and its environs . suburbs.

She faces Republican of the highest rank Don Bacon in this Republican-style district, where Trump narrowly won in 2016 but Obama won in 2008.

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa . 19659025] Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This document may not be published, distributed, rewritten or redistributed.