Bernie Sanders, AOC plan more 'Fight Oligarchy' tour stops. Are they coming to Washington?
Bernie Sanders, AOC plan more 'Fight Oligarchy' tour stops. Are they coming to Washington?
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Bernie Sanders, AOC rally in Tempe, call out Arizona GOP
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rallied in Arizona on March 21, 2025. The Democrats called out the Trump administration.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are joining forces on the road again.
The progressive duo is starting a new leg of its "Fighting Oligarchy" tour with a stop in Los Angeles on April 12. The tour consists of rallies and town halls that have drawn large crowds to hear Sanders, 83, and Ocasio-Cortez, 35, challenge President Donald Trump's policies and economic disparities in the U.S.
"Today, we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had," Sanders said in Greeley, Colorado, on March 21. "Today, we have three multi-billionaires – Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg – these three combined own more wealth than the bottom half of American society."
Elon Musk, one of Trump's top advisers, has a net worth of about $338 billion, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $206 billion, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a net worth of $198 billion, according to Forbes.
Here's more on the tour:
Is the 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour coming to Washington state?
As of April 1, no "Fighting Oligarchy" tour dates had been scheduled in Washington state, according to the tour website.
This publication reached out to Sanders' website to ask whether any Washington stops were in the works but did not immediately receive a response.
Where is the 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour going?
The "Fighting Oligarchy" tour's next stop is Gloria Molina Grand Park in Los Angeles on April 12. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are scheduled to speak, according to Sanders' website.
No other upcoming dates were listed, but Politico's Christopher Cadelago posted on X a March 27 press release from the Sanders team that said more "events will be announced in the coming days."
What is the 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour?
The "Fighting Oligarchy" tour is a series of rallies and town halls headlined by Sanders to "have real discussions across America on how we move forward to take on the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country," according to the senator's website.
It started in Omaha, Nebraska, on Feb. 21, with Sanders saying in an Instagram post that he would take the tour across the country from there. It has since made stops in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado.
According to the Sanders team's press release, the tour has drawn more than 107,000 people.
What is an oligarchy?
Merriam-Webster defines oligarchy as "government by the few" and "a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes."
While the term has been used to describe places such as Russia and China, the Encyclopedia Britannica notes that some scholars believe the U.S. has become "an oligarchy or a plutocracy" because corporations and the ultrarich can take advantage of societal wealth gaps to wield political influence, "often against the preferences of the majority of ordinary citizens."
"Oligarchy is about bridging economic and political power," Luke Winslow, associate professor of communication at Baylor University and author of "Oligarchy in America: Power, Justice, and the Rule of the Few," said in a panel discussion on NewsNation in 2022. "And I think what oligarchs are primarily concerned with is if the processes by which they bridge economic and political power are well known."
Americans, Sanders has said, "live in an oligarchic society in which billionaires dominate not only our politics and the information we consume from media, but our government and economic lives as well."
Contributing: Maria Francis, USA TODAY Network
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