WARREN, MI -- Michigan voters helped kick off a “political revolution” that started with Bernie Sanders’ first presidential campaign in 2016 and since launched aspirational ideas into the mainstream, he said at a Warren rally.

During campaign rally at Macomb Community College, the 2016 Michigan Democratic primary winner said reforms that were once considered “radical” will spur economic and social justice. After meeting with West Michigan union workers earlier in the day, Sanders said he would ban right to work laws, increase access to unions for skilled trades workers and penalize companies that move jobs overseas.

“Democratic candidates from school board to president” are supporting ideas like raising the minimum wage to $15, funding debt-free college, removing dark money from elections and creating a single-payer health care system, Sanders said.

Sanders, I-Vt., painted Trump as a “pathological liar” who didn’t deliver on big promises to make health care insurance available to everyone, reduce trade deficits and fight income inequality.

Sanders said the trade deficit increased $120 billion and 185,000 American jobs were shipped overseas since Trump took office. He called on the president to pull back a replacement to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has yet to be ratified by the United States, Mexico or Canada.

“For once in your life, keep your campaign promises.” Sanders said. “Go back to the drawing board on NAFTA.”

The new trade deal should have “strong and swift enforcement measures,” he said, to raise the wages of workers and prevent jobs from being outsourced to Mexico. He said companies should not receive federal contracts after outsourcing jobs.

Skilled trade workers should have greater access to unions, Sanders said. Earlier that day, he met with a West Michigan union representing skilled trades workers in Coopersville.

“When large corporations get federal contracts, we have got to know they are employed who have a conscience,” Sanders said.

Sanders visited Michigan while on a weekend tour of Midwest battleground states, including Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Campaign staff said Sanders attracted 1,400 people to the Warren rally.

Medicare for All

Sanders championed his ambitious “Medicare for All” plan, introduced earlier this week. The plan would transition the United States to a single-payer health care system, eliminating private insurance corporations.

Sanders said the new system would reduce costs for Americans, including the price of prescription drugs, while expanding coverage to home and community-based long-term care services.

Medicare for All as a concept has been supported by presidential hopefuls U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Sanders introduced his bill alongside Booker, Gillibrand, Harris and Warren.

Estimates of previous bills introduced by Sanders were estimated to cost $32 trillion over 10 years.

In a statement released after Sanders’ visit to Coopersville, U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland called the plan “socialist rhetoric.” Huizenga said the plan would kick 5.5 million Michigan residents off their private health insurance and limit health care choices for patients.

“This is precisely the wrong approach,” Huizenga said in a statement.

The health care plan also painted a target on the back of U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, who is up for re-election in 2020.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee began running digital ads Saturday targeting Peters for not taking a position on Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal. NRSC spokesperson Nathan Brand said the ads were launched on Twitter and Facebook hours before the rally began in Warren.

Sanders aims to win in Michigan

Sanders reflected on his 2016 Democratic primary win in Michigan, at the time considered a long shot. He said winning Michigan will be essential to defeating Trump in 2020.

Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic gubernatorial competitor in 2018, introduced Sanders at the event. The two exchanged a warm hug when Sanders took the stage.

Sanders endorsed El-Sayed in the Democratic primary, but was defeated by now-Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Democratic strategists are looking to Whitmer’s campaign, instead of Sanders-backed candidates, as a blueprint for 2020 presidential hopefuls seeking to flip Michigan.

Trump ultimately took Michigan by 10,704 votes in 2016, a narrow margin that leaves Democrats hopeful the state can be flipped back in 2020. Michigan voters also elected Democrats to all statewide offices up for grabs in the 2018 midterms.

Presidential candidates flooded Michigan with March campaign stops, and more are scheduled in the following months.

Early polls of Democratic voters either rank Sanders second among prospective Democratic nominees or tied with former Vice President Joe Biden. Though Biden has yet to formally announce a campaign, he has strong name recognition and favorability scores among voters surveyed.

A March Emerson College poll of voters across the country showed Sanders eliminated the gap with Biden since February. A poll of Michigan voters showed Sanders holds a strong advantage among 18 to 29-year-olds and beat Trump by 5 percentage points in a head to head matchup.

Sanders raised more than $18 million in the six weeks since launching his second bid for the White House, his campaign announced earlier this week. According to the campaign, Sanders received contributions from 8,000 voters in Wisconsin, 14,000 in Michigan and 18,000 in Pennsylvania.

Though Sanders serves in the Senate as an independent, he signed a loyalty pledge to run and govern as a Democrat if he wins the presidency in 2020. The pledge is required of Democratic candidates after Sanders caused concern that he might run as a third-party candidate after losing the 2016 nomination to Hillary Clinton.

Sanders said he would not pledge his loyalty to big money campaign donors.

“You ready for a radical idea?" Sanders said. "This looks like a radical group of people. Well here it is: To me, democracy means one person, one vote. Not billionaires buying elections.”

Brian Murphy, 57, said it’s time for Sanders to sit in the Oval Office. Wearing a “hindsight 2020” shirt, the Troy resident said Sanders could have beaten Trump if they faced off in the general election.

Murphy said Sanders is the only candidate talking seriously about reducing income inequality.

“I’ve been saying for 20 years that the revolution is overdue,” Murphy said.