Sanders slams billionaire spending in Pennsylvania midterm races

Bernie Sanders told Pennsylvania Democrats that massive spending by the “billionaire class” was the biggest obstacle facing progressive candidates as he rallied for Summer Lee and John Fetterman in Philadelphia. He said the flood of money in key races was drowning out the message that candidates like Lee and Fetterman were trying to carry. Sanders called the impact of billionaire money on the midterms “disgusting.”

The Philadelphia stop put Pennsylvania at the center of a broader fight over whether anti-establishment anger could overcome the modern money machine in U.S. elections. Fetterman was locked in a closely watched Senate race against Mehmet Oz, while Lee was campaigning in a separate congressional contest that drew national attention and heavy outside spending. Pennsylvania’s status as a battleground gave Sanders’ criticism a larger audience than a local rally usually commands.

The scale of the money backing that criticism was striking. Americans for Tax Fairness said billionaire spending topped $1 billion for the first time in the 2022 elections, a mark that underscored how far wealthy donors had expanded their role in federal campaigns. Sanders’ argument was not only about one race in Pennsylvania. It was about a political system he has long said tilts toward those who can write the biggest checks.

That clash over money was already visible before the midterms. In October 2021, Democrats were weighing a “Billionaire Income Tax” proposal that would require billionaires to pay taxes on the increased value of their assets, part of a wider debate over how to tax wealth concentrated at the top. Sanders’ attack on billionaire spending fit that same theme: a warning that electoral power and economic power were becoming harder to separate.

In Pennsylvania, the stakes were immediate. Fetterman’s contest with Oz was one of the cycle’s marquee Senate races, and Lee’s campaign added another test of whether progressive candidates could win attention in heavily financed battlegrounds. Sanders made clear that, in his view, the biggest challenge was not only persuading voters but breaking through a campaign environment increasingly shaped by the richest donors in the country.