CLEVELAND, Ohio – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent running for president as a Democrat, will visit union workers this Sunday in Lordstown, the campaign announced Wednesday.

Sanders will hold a town hall meeting with members of the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of Teachers at 1 p.m. at Lordstown High School. The event is closed to the public.

Sanders, 77, released details of a Midwest tour earlier this week that appeared to skip over Ohio, with visits to Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Some national Democrats have openly talked about the fact that Ohio is trending Republican, much to the chagrin of liberals in the state.

But the senator included a late addition to the schedule, with plans to visit the town that’s been in crisis mode since General Motors announced the closure of a Chevrolet Cruze production factory that was the economic lifeblood of the community.

The Lordstown GM factory closure left 1,400 workers without a job. Other businesses in the area that relied on the factory have felt the ripple effects.

Politically, the factory represents something of a weak point for Republican President Donald Trump, who won Ohio and finished strong in the traditionally Democratic Mahoning Valley.

Trump visited nearby Youngstown in 2017 and promised factory jobs were returning to the area, going so far as to tell the crowd to not sell their houses.

Since the plant’s idling, Trump has criticized the workers at the facility, with particular ire directed at Dave Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, the union representing GM workers. Trump attacked Green in a tweet, saying the union leader “ought to get his act together and produce.”

While local outrage ensued, national attention from the crowded Democratic primary field has been minimal, even after Trump condemned the union once more during an official White House appearance in Lima.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Youngstown-area Democrat whose district includes the factory, has been the de facto leader of pushing the Lordstown issue among the presidential candidates. Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas also made an impromptu stop and spoke with Green during his March visit to Northeast Ohio.

Sanders’ visit comes days after he proposed a national ban on so-called “right-to-work” legislation – laws aimed at weakening collective bargaining by eliminating union dues for nonmembers who benefit from negotiations – and the introduction of his latest bill in Congress for universal health care.

Sanders finds himself occupying unfamiliar, but welcome, territory at the moment: front-runner of the Democratic primary. While he proved popular in the 2016 election, he never once led eventual nominee Hillary Clinton in delegates, including losing the Ohio primary.

An $18 million haul in the first fundraising quarter, higher name recognition than almost every other candidate and serious miscues by and intensified scrutiny of former Vice President Joe Biden have left Sanders atop the crowded field.