UPDATE 3: 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 21

Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will visit the Inland region.

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The Inland Empire is getting its first visit from a 2016 presidential candidate and members of the public will have a chance to attend.

Hillary Clinton will visit the UC Riverside campus on Tuesday, May 24, according to a campaign press release Saturday, May 21. The front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination will attend “an organizing event” at the Johnson Family Practice Center, the release read.

The center, formerly known as the Physical Education Gym, is an indoor athletic practice facility. Doors open for the event at 3:30 p.m., according to the Clinton campaign.

Members of the public interested in attending can RSVP at her website.

Her opponent, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, announced Saturday afternoon that he, too, would visit the Inland region.

The visit is part of a week-long swing through California that will also include stops in Los Angeles, Commerce, Orange County, Salinas and San Jose, according to the news release.

Clinton will be asking for voters support and urging them to vote on Election Day, the news release stated She plans to “discuss why she is the best candidate to raise incomes for California families, to lower health care costs and improve education, and to break down the barriers that hold too many Americans back,” the release stated.

James Grant, a UCR spokesman, saidofficials there don’t know why Clinton’s campaign organizers chose the campus for the Tuesday event. But Grant said they are pleased.

“We’re very excited to have a potential future president,” he said. “It’s a reflection of the importance of the Inland Empire as well as the importance of our campus.”

Grant was uncertain how many people the gym can hold.

Security personnel from other campuses are being called in and will coordinate with the Secret Service, he said. He did not know if other local police agencies would be involved.<

Some UC Riverside students are already planning a protest. A Facebook page called Highlanders Against Hilary had seven hosts as of Saturday morning.

One host of the group suggested that protesters not wear any campaign gear that associate them with her opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“We can protest and oppose Hillary peacefully, without having to side ourselves with Bernie and make him look bad,” said David Layson on the Facebook page.

Clinton, 68, is visiting California this month ahead of the state’s June 7 primary.

In fact, over the next few days, Southern California will become Campaign Central:

Hillary Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, has campaigned for his wife in the state and will appear at Ganesha High in Pomona on Saturday and in Sacramento and Stockton on Monday.

Clinton’s foe in the fiery race for the Democratic nomination, Sanders, will speak at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater on Sunday, in Santa Monica on Monday and in Anaheim on Tuesday.

And Republican nominee-to-be Donald Trump will appear at a high-end fundraiser in Los Angeles on Wednesday — and could make other stops in the region.

An event to raise money for candidate Clinton will take place Saturday, May 21, at a private residence in Riverside. Headlining the event is California Secretary of State Alex Padilla. There has been no announcement that Clinton herself plans to attend.

Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state who was first lady in the 1990s and later a U.S. senator from New York, is currently fighting a two-front battle with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who continues to mount a determined challenge for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton led Sanders by 274 delegates as of this week and when superdelegates — Democratic party leaders and elected officials — are factored in, the lead grows to 760 delegates.

California will send 475 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July. Because those delegates are awarded proportionally, Clinton seems likely to get the 2,383 delegates required for the Democratic nomination.

In recent weeks, Clinton has turned her attention to fighting Trump. But as long as Sanders continues to mount a vigorous challenge — and he’s shown no signs of backing down — Clinton has to at least make appearances in the Golden State.

Sanders, who spent a night this week in Palm Springs, has been crisscrossing California as well and drawing thousands to his rallies. He’ll be in National City and Irvine on Saturday, the same day as his supporters will be knocking on doors at a series of events throughout the state, including Riverside.

A Field Poll released in April showed Clinton leading Sanders 47 to 41 percent. But Sanders trailed Clinton in that poll by double digits in January, and he fares especially well among younger voters and independents, who are allowed to vote in California’s Democratic primary.

Clinton draws her strength from older voters as well as African Americans and Latinos. A poll released in May and conducted for KABC/TV-7 and the Southern California News Group showed Clinton with a double-digit lead over Sanders in California.

The tone of the Democratic campaign has become more acrimonious in recent weeks, with vociferous Sanders supporters disrupting the Nevada Democratic Convention last weekend. The Nevada Democratic Party chairman received vulgar and threatening voicemails from Sanders supporters, and many establishment Democrats were upset with Sanders for not condemning their actions more forcefully.

The Sanders campaign, on the other hand, contends that the party is being unfair to Sanders and his backers, many of whom believe the system is rigged against their candidate.

While Clinton has portrayed herself as a pragmatic progressive, Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, gives impassioned stump speeches decrying income inequality and Wall Street greed and calling for universal health care and free college education. Clinton’s supporters dismiss Sanders’ ideas as lacking in detail and unrealistic.

Clinton will visit an Inland Empire that has become friendlier ground for Democrats in recent years. As a whole, the region is still more Republican than the rest of California, and GOP voters still outnumber Democrats in Riverside County.

That said, Inland Democrats won contested Assembly, state Senate and congressional seats in recent elections. And the Inland Latino population continues to grow, providing Democrats with a solid voting block.

Economically, the Inland Empire is less well-educated than other parts of California, and the region was hard hit by foreclosures and unemployment during the Great Recession. The economy has bounced back more slowly than coastal parts of the state, and many Inland workers drive an hour or more to jobs in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.

In addition, San Bernardino became the latest flashpoint in the global war on terror in December 2015, when a husband and wife with radical Islamic beliefs killed 14 and wounded 22 in a mass shooting. They later died in a shootout with police.

Traditionally, California has been a popular fundraising stop for presidential hopefuls, but not a place to campaign. The state’s primary typically takes place well after the race for the GOP and Democratic nominations is pretty much decided.

Riverside County Republican Party Chairman Scott Mann said: “The GOP opposes Secretary Clinton and all of the positions which she is campaigning for President. “

“By appearing on a college campus, she will be addressing many Bernie Sanders supporters and I doubt she will change many minds. We respect the right of free speech as one of our nation’s bedrock principles. Mrs. Clinton is simply exercising that right by campaigning here.”

It’s unlikely California will be in play for the November general election. The state’s 55 electoral votes haven’t gone to a Republican since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Staff writer Imran Ghori contributed to this report.