Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Health Secretary RFK Jr. and Sen. Bernie Sanders will visit Utah next week during separate events.
- RFK Jr. will promote Utah health initiatives, including banning fluoride and restricting SNAP purchases for soda.
- Sanders will host a "Fighting Oligarchy" rally in Salt Lake City.
SALT LAKE CITY — A pair of national political figures will visit Utah next week.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to celebrate Utah bills related to his Make America Healthy Again" agenda, and Sen. Bernie Sanders will hold a rally as part of his national "Fighting Oligarchy" tour.
It won't be the first stop in the Beehive State for either man, as both visited during their recent presidential campaigns — Sanders as a Democrat in 2020 and Kennedy as a Democrat-turned-independent during the run-up to the 2024 election. Sanders won Utah's Democratic primaries in both 2016 and 2020.
As President Donald Trump's health secretary, Kennedy embarks on a three-day swing through Utah, Arizona and New Mexico next week to promote state initiatives that align with his health agenda. That includes a press conference with state lawmakers in Salt Lake City Monday focused on recent bills banning fluoride in public water systems, barring certain food additives from school lunches, and preventing recipients from using SNAP benefits — also known as food stamps — to purchase soda.
Sanders — an independent senator from Vermont — will hold a rally at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Sunday, April 13, as part of his ongoing tour in opposition to the Trump administration. Often accompanied by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, Sanders has drawn large crowds in Republican-controlled districts as he has railed against wealthy elites.
"The American people, whether they are Democrats, Republican or independents, do not want billionaires to control our government or buy our elections," Sanders said. "They do not want Republicans to decimate Social Security and the Veterans Administration. They do not want huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in the country paid for by massive cuts to Medicaid and other programs that working families rely on. That is why I will be visiting Republican-held districts all over the western United States. When we are organized and fight back, we can defeat oligarchy."
Sanders will kick off his tour in Los Angeles at a rally with Ocasio-Cortez and performers Neil Young, Maggie Rogers, Joan Baez and others on April 12. After the stop in Salt Lake City — where he will be joined by Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson — Sanders will continue on to Nampa, Idaho, then return to California before concluding the five-day tour in Missoula, Montana.
