'People are struggling': ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä turns out for Sanders' 'Fighting Oligarchy Tour'

ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä was the 17th stop on Sanders’ national Fighting Oligarchy tour, at which he’s been holding speeches and town halls targeting corporate interests. According to Sanders' media team, Sanders drew a crowd of just over 400 in Lenore, in rural Mingo County, Saturday afternoon, according to an HD Media reporter on site. More than 2,300 saw Sanders in Wheeling at the Capitol Theatre Friday evening, according to Sanders' media team.

What’s about to make life in America even less affordable, Sanders, 83, contended, is a Republican-crafted budget reconciliation package signed into law by President Donald Trump last month that nonpartisan analysts have projected will significantly slash health care and food benefits to low-income families to pay for tax cuts that favor the wealthy.

“How disgraceful,� Sanders said. “Shame is the right word. We can argue about policy, but I don’t think there are too many people in America [who] think it is a good idea to take food from the mouths of hungry kids, take health care away from working-class people, and then give those savings in tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations.�

The law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was projected to result in about 17 million more people without health insurance, according to a projection last month by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.

In a June webinar by the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and the nonprofit health policy newsroom Tradeoffs projected that Medicaid cuts, shortened Affordable Care Act enrollment windows and new administrative hurdles in a version of the bill similar to the one that became law could increase the nation’s uninsured population by 60% and result in more than 51,000 additional deaths each year.

Jessica Lawrence, 47, of Buffalo, Putnam County, a licensed practical nurse and registered independent, said at Sanders’ ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä stop Saturday she attended to “speak up for some change,â€� fearing the reconciliation law’s Medicaid and Medicare cuts will affect her patients.

“The working class, a lot of them eventually have Medicare, Medicaid. They have benefits, but they are still working,� Lawrence said. “People are struggling just to make it.�

Dr. King Seegar, 79, a pediatrician from Franklin, Pendleton County, predicted the reconciliation law will “devastate small towns� and result in hospital closures. Seegar said a nursing home in his county is in jeopardy.

“He is of and for the people of this country that work hard to try and make a living for their children and their families,� Seegar said of Sanders, who, like Lawrence, was seeing Sanders in person for the first time.

But Sanders’ criticism extended beyond the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in his 45-minute speech.

The 2016 and 2020 presidential Democratic primary runner-up framed the law as the product of a government by the wealthy for the wealthy that has allowed Trump to ransack the political system instead of making good on his promise to fix it.

“These guys have not only enormous economic power, but what is even more dangerous is they now have incredible political power,� Sanders said.

The West Virginia Republican Party bashed Sanders in a statement ahead of his West Virginia Friday, alluding to Sanders’ self-described “democratic socialism,� which he has contrasted with what he calls “corporate socialism� that enriches Trump and other billionaires. The party highlighted Sanders’ support for gun control measures and attacks on fossil fuels.

“We hope that Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders enjoys his visit to West Virginia, a state that overwhelmingly supports the Make America Great Again agenda of President Donald J. Trump,� Josh Holstein, the new West Virginia Republican Party chairman, said in a statement. “The West Virginia Republican Party recognizes that Bernie Sanders represents everything that the vast majority of West Virginians stand against.�

Lawrence, though, wasn’t focused on political parties or labels Saturday.

But to Charles Brown, 72, of ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä, a retired schoolteacher and registered independent, Sanders represents recognition of economic inequality.

“He has consistently pointed out the inequities that are systemic in our economy,� Brown said, “that the system is actually rigged to create wealth inordinately for wealthy people.�

'Greed is their religion'

Sanders framed the Medicaid and SNAP cuts as fitting in an oligarchy where the public welfare has been sacrificed to accommodate corporate greed.

“They are very religious people, and greed is their religion. They worship on the altar of money,� Sanders said of billionaires like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who co-launched the Department of Government Efficiency within the Trump administration before departing in May -- after pro-Trump and other Republican contributions linked to him exceeded $270 million during the 2024 presidential election cycle.

Sanders recalled a February 2025 report from the RAND Corp., a global nonprofit think tank, finding nearly $80 trillion in wealth in the U.S. has been redistributed from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1% over the past 50 years. 

Income inequality has grown significantly in West Virginia over the long term.

In 1950, the top three family income brackets — those making at least $6,000 at the time — comprised only 6.6% of West Virginia families, as categorized in Census Bureau records then.

The top three household income brackets recorded by the Census Bureau — those making $100,000 or more — comprised 25% of all West Virginia households in 2023, per U.S. Census Bureau data.

Those households making below $25,000 comprised 22.1% of West Virginia households in 2023, meaning nearly one in every four households drew an income of only $2,083 per month or less. Those same income brackets comprised 15.2% of U.S. households, nearly seven percentage points fewer than West Virginia’s share.

“It’s the upshift of wealth. In the meantime, they demonize poor people,� Brown said. “They demonize the undocumented, who are actually contributing to our [economy].�

Immigrants lacking permanent legal status pay higher state and local tax rates than the top 1% of households living within their borders in 40 states, comprising $10.4 million in state and local tax contributions in West Virginia, according to a report last year by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning policy research group.

A wide range of Trump administration policies have targeted those living in the U.S. without legal permission, which Sanders suggested was Trump using “the same old playbook that demagogues have always used.�

“You’ve got a housing problem. You’ve got a health care problem. You’re not making enough money. Your kids can’t go to college. You know who’s fault it is? It’s all the undocumented. And we are going to come together to hate the undocumented, and then we forget about the oligarchs and the people who have the wealth and power,� Sanders said, characterizing his view of that “playbook.�

W.Va. activists share Sanders' focus on class struggle

Preceding Sanders at the podium were four West Virginia activists who shared his focus on class struggle.

Sanders was introduced by Zach Shrewsbury, a community organizer whose Mercer County-based Bluejay Rising voter registration nonprofit has frequently provided water pallets to southern coalfield communities plagued with discolored and foul-smelling water supply and aid in response to flooding.

Shrewsbury last month announced a 2026 Senate bid for the seat currently held by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Shrewsbury came in second in the 2024 Senate Democratic primary, bested by then-Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who then lost in the general election to then-Gov. Jim Justice.

But Shrewsbury didn’t mention his candidacy during his speech Saturday night, instead exhorting West Virginians to mobilize in a broader fight against “cowards in D.C., by billionaires, career politicians, by capitalists who sold us out long ago.�

“They see West Virginia as a sacrifice zone, a plan to extract, pollute, experience, abandon, but now we must rise and challenge and beat back that corruption with everything we have,� Shrewsbury said. “We are done asking for justice. We are demanding it.�

Environmental activist Maria Gunnoe of Boone County blasted those — like West Virginia’s congressional delegation — who voted for Medicaid and SNAP cuts.

“To be clear, Medicaid covers coal miners [who] have black lung [disease],� Gunnoe said. “How can any West Virginian or Appalachian politician be that cruel?�

After recalling her father dying of a fatal overdose on Thanksgiving 21 years ago, recovery organizer JoAnna Vance denounced Gov. Patrick Morrisey, noting the governor’s past as a pharmaceuticals lobbyist and suggesting that West Virginia settled for too little in opioid settlement funds.

“He’s not one of us and we know it,� Vance said of Morrisey. “He’s going to be the first one [who] we start with when we’re getting rid of these political dynasties and families here in West Virginia.�

“They tell us there’s no money for health care, no money to fix the water, no money to keep our schools open. But somehow there’s always enough money for war,� community organizer and American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia board member Morgan Fowler said during her speech. “Our tax dollars are going [toward] starv[ing] children in Gaza.�

Sanders welcomed a recent uptick in Democratic senators supporting his resolutions to target U.S. arms sales to Israel in response to what human rights groups and international law experts say has been its genocide destroying Palestinians in Gaza throughout a 22-month war with Islamist group Hamas.

Sanders attributed lawmaker opposition to stopping what he called funding “Israel’s war machine� to pressure from pro-Israel “super PAC� funding.

A super PAC, or political action committee, is an independent expense-only committee that can receive unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations and other PACs. Super PACs may not contribute to or coordinate directly with candidates.

In a 5-4 vote along ideological lines, the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 found in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections can’t be limited. The majority held that political speech is essential in a democracy, even if the speech comes from a corporation.

The Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision enabled “super PACs,� and other outside groups funded by a handful of wealthy donors to make unprecedented investments in candidates.

“The most important political change we can make in this country is to overturn this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision,� Sanders said.

'I hope people are activated'

Sanders closed his speech by exhorting West Virginians to “bring people together to make it clear that every person in West Virginia and all over this country deserves a decent standard of living.�

Organizers looked to make the most of Sanders’ tour stop by recruiting attendees to join, support or raise awareness of their activist and political groups. Organizations with tables near the seating area included Planned Parenthood, Progressive Democrats of America, and Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services, a regional group that offers free and sliding-scale legal aid to underserved clients impacted by environmental harms.

Joe Solomon, a progressive ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä City Council member at-large, worked to recruit potential council candidates. He recalled Sanders’ first political office was mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Burlington’s population is just a bit less than ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä’s population of about 49,000, according to U.S. Census data.

“I just feel we need to start prototyping the things we want at the city level,� Solomon said.

“I hope people are activated,� Brown said, “to engage with their neighbors and friends about what’s going on.�