“I think that if there is a large voter turnout, we are going to do just great here in Illinois, in Missouri, Ohio, and hopefully North Carolina and Florida,” Sanders said. “In the states that are coming down the pike, we have great opportunities to win many of them, so we are feeling really good.”

Sanders was accompanied by Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Emanuel in the Democratic primary last year. The approval ratings of Emanuel, an ally of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, have dropped to all-time lows amid controversies over a police shooting and school closings.

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On Monday night, Garcia was among those who joined Sanders at a boisterous rally, where close to 4,000 people packed into a downtown theater and many others were turned away, according to Sanders aides.

“I think all of us wish that Chuy would have been the mayor,” Sanders told the crowd, to great applause.

“I come to Chicago, and I hear about 50 schools in black and Latino communities being shut down,” Sanders added. “We’ve got to get our priorities right.”

Besides laying out his own priorities to rebuild the middle class, Sanders also took aim at Clinton during his speech, ticking off what he said were big differences in their positions on trade, Wall Street regulation, the Iraq war and the death penalty, among other issues.

Sanders also knocked Clinton, a former secretary of state, for recently citing praise she had received from one of her predecessors, Henry Kissinger.