By ideastream's Brian Bull
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders makes his first political foray in Ohio tonight.
The Vermont senator’s speech at the Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University will touch on issues including criminal justice reform, immigration and wealth inequality. In recent polls, Sanders trails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by wide margins.
But John Green -- a political scientist who directs the Bliss Institute at the University of Akron -- says some Democrats want to see a more progressive alternative to Clinton.
“And Senator Sanders up to this point has been filing that niche quite well," says Green. "And a large Midwestern state like Ohio is a good place to try to expand that niche. And this may help counteract some of the endorsements and so forth, that Secretary Clinton has received recently.”
For his part, Sanders scored the endorsement last week of a prominent Cleveland-area Democrat, Nina Turner. The former state senator had been involved with the Clinton campaign but had not formally endorsed her. Turner will join Sanders at his rally tonight.