Bernie Sanders To Make Campaign Stops In Eastern PA

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will make a pair of stops in eastern Pennsylvania next week coming off his tour through swing Rust Belt states.

On Monday, April 15, Sanders, who suddenly finds himself as a 2020 front runner, is slated to participate in a closed meeting with a nurses union in Wilkes Barre, according to the Citizens Voice.

The event with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals will be held at the Mohegan Sun Pocono.

Later that night, Sanders, 77, will move on to Bethlehem, where his campaign confirmed he'll participate in a town hall meeting — televised by Fox News. It's the first 2020 Democratic candidate's town hall meeting that Fox is televising. The Democratic National Committee has previously announced that it will not have any primary debates on Fox News.

The town hall will air live from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Fox announced. Fox News hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCullum will anchor the event. The town hall will reportedly focus on jobs and the economy.

At least one political commentator thinks it's a shrewd move by Sanders to appear on Fox News, in Pennsylvania.

"Sanders seems to understand what it means to reach out to all voters," analyst Joe Concha wrote for The Hill. "And all voters includes Trump voters, even some who voted for the Republican in 2016, after casting their ballots for Sanders in the primary."

The visits will follow up a rally across the state in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Other rallies are planned in Madison, Wisconsin on Friday, and Warren, Michigan on Saturday, as well as events in Indiana and Ohio over the weekend.

Sanders lost Pennsylvania to Hillary Clinton in 2016, part of a string of decisive victories for the former Secretary of State that ultimately gave her the party's nomination for President.

Pennsylvania is reported to be a focus of President Trump's in the early going of his candidacy for re-election, as his advisers see the state's working class vote as crucial to winning a second term.

Sanders sits in second behind former Vice President Joe Biden in a crowded Democratic field, according to an aggregate of recent polls from RealClearPolitics. Biden, at 31 percent, and Sanders, at 21 percent, have a significant gap on the rest of the field, with former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas and Sen. Kamala Harris of California at nine percent each.