U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders visited downtown Racine on Saturday to campaign for a Democrat hoping to challenge Republican U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, of Janesville.

The rally for Randy Bryce, an ironworker and U.S. Army veteran of Caledonia, drew more than 1,400 attendees by the count of one campaign spokeswoman.

Sanders, who won Wisconsin in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, expressed his support for Bryce while advocating for a range of issues, gun control, marijuana legalization, net neutrality, raising the minimum wage and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Sanders also addressed Wisconsin residents who voted for President Donald Trump in the general election and flipped the state red.

"I happen not to believe that all of Trump's supporters are racists or homophobes or sexists," Sanders said. "I don’t believe that for a moment."

Sanders said he believes there are people in Wisconsin and across the country who are struggling, "and they feel that they were let down by the Democratic Party and they looked for an alternative," Sanders said.

Meskego residents Nancy Brunette and Mary Elizabeth Blaney were among those at the event Saturday. They said they support Bryce because they oppose Ryan's proposals to cut Medicare and Social Security spending.

"That's what I'm on. Without that, I will be dead," Brunette said. "(Bryce) supports people like me. He's not into special interest groups."

Blaney said she supported the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans, including Ryan, have tried to dismantle on several occasions, most recently by repealing the individual mandate.

During the rally, Bryce slammed Ryan on the issue of health care, telling the crowd how cancer almost left him bankrupt. Bryce, who is campaigning in favor of Sanders' Medicare for All bill, described how he lived in fear that his mother with multiple sclerosis and father with Alzheimer's disease would lose their health coverage.

Bryce also took issue with Ryan's role in the passage of the GOP tax bill.

"(Paul Ryan) claims he passed (the GOP tax bill) for the middle class, for people like you and me, but then why do our tax breaks expire while the corporations' don't?" Bryce said.



Ximena Conde/WPR

The fact that Ryan hadn't held a public town hall meeting in his district for two years has also become a campaign issue. Ryan held a CNN-ticketed town hall last August, but Bryce lambasted the House speaker, accusing him of not keeping in touch with his constituents.

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"He is not representing us anymore," Bryce said of Ryan. "And we know this for a couple of reasons. First, you can't represent people you don't talk to."

Bryce's message rings with Carl Fields, of Racine, who manages an area homeless shelter. Fields said he thinks Bryce wouldn't get distracted by national politics.

"We need somebody who is with Racine people and doesn't simply have a national agenda, but they're representing local issues," Fields said, also expressing concerns for the Republican policies that might weaken unions.

Bryce's support for free college tuition has also garnered Ronald Brown's support. Brown, who lives in Racine, is a veteran, a quadriplegic and grandfather of four.

"I'm here for my grandchildren," explained Brown. "I want them to have a future that was not available to me and will hopefully be available to them if Randy Bryce becomes our next congressman."

But state Republicans have been quick to fight Bryce's and Sanders' criticisms.

"Thanks to Republican tax cuts, Wisconsinites are keeping more of what they earn," said Alec Zimmerman, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, in a statement. "Bernie and Bryce are campaigning to take that money and give it to Washington — they think they know how to spend your money better than you do."

Bryce had the support of the grassroots Wisconsin Working Families Party.

Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Rebecca Dallet was also in the crowd.

This isn't Bryce's first run for public office. He lost a 2012 state Assembly bid and a 2014 state Senate bid.

But Bryce isn't running unopposed.

Cathy Myers is a Janesville teacher who is also vying to be the Democratic candidate that challenges Ryan. A member of the Janesville School Board, Myers is a single mother of two also hoping to get the middle-class vote. She has called Bryce a career candidate.

Bryce's campaign argues that he ran in a heavily gerrymandered race in order to give people a choice.