Bernie Sanders hired an Iowa organizer. What he's working on now
An interview with Evan Burger
This original reporting and analysis first appeared at Bleeding Heartland and is shared here as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. For regular emails linking to all recent Bleeding Heartland articles and commentary, subscribe to the free Evening Heartland newsletter.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign has a staffer on the ground again in Iowa. No, the senator from Vermont isn’t getting a head start on the 2028 caucuses.
In an April 3 telephone interview, Evan Burger described his focus and early work as Iowa organizer for Friends of Bernie Sanders.
WHY IOWA?
Burger’s been in the organizing world for about ten years, and this is his third stint with the Sanders campaign. He was one of the presidential candidate’s first two Iowa hires in 2015. His roles that cycle included advance director before the caucuses and deputy state director for the 2016 conventions in Iowa. He worked as Sanders’ Iowa caucus director during the 2020 cycle.
(Unrelated to that work, Burger has been a Bleeding Heartland guest author, writing eight posts for that website about Iowa’s redistricting process in 2021.)
Why would Friends of Bernie Sanders put staff on the ground in an increasingly red state? The senator “has a special connection with Iowa,” having spent a lot of time here since 2015, Burger told me.
His new position grew out of Sanders’ well-attended Iowa City event in February. Sanders is visiting U.S. House districts represented by Republicans considered to be vulnerable in the next cycle. Iowa City was the second stop (after Omaha) on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
While Burger has connected with activists in other parts of the state, his work will concentrate on Iowa’s first and third Congressional districts. Strategists expect those to be among the most competitive U.S. House races in the country in 2026. IA-01 covers the 20 counties that are orange on this map, and IA-03 covers the 21 red counties.
According to the latest Cook Political Report “Partisan Voting Index” (Cook PVI) scores, based on voting for president in the last two elections, the first district went from R+3 in 2023 to R+4 in 2025. In other words, residents of IA-01 voted about 4 points more Republican in the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections than the country as a whole. The Cook PVI score for the third district inched in the other direction, from R+3 in 2023 to R+2 under Cook’s new calculations.
Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks was one of the most under-performing House Republicans in the country in 2024, winning a third term in IA-01 by about 0.2 percent in a district Donald Trump carried by eight points.
Two-term GOP incumbent Zach Nunn won his first race in IA-03 by less than 1 percent and was re-elected in 2024 by about a 4-point margin, similar to Trump’s advantage across the district.
Although the Sanders campaign is putting staff in swing districts, Burger’s current focus is not electoral organizing.
“A YES OR NO VOTE ON THE TRUMP AGENDA”
In the coming months, Republicans in Congress will try to pass a bill with huge tax and federal spending cuts, using the reconciliation process. After the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour showed many Iowans were energized by Sanders’ message, the senator hired Burger to “keep the momentum going” around what’s happening with the federal budget.
“Every member of Congress is going to have to take a yes or no vote on the Trump agenda,” Burger told me. This isn’t something the president can do through executive orders. “Iowans deserve to know what’s in that bill.”
Republicans are far from finalizing the details, but budget blueprints approved in both chambers call for huge tax breaks for the top 1 percent of earners (at least $1 trillion) and lower spending on many federal programs (likely cutting Medicaid by $880 billion). The GOP budget will attempt to codify many cuts Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has already made without legal authorization.
In addition to educating Iowans about harmful aspects of the reconciliation bill, progressive groups will be “putting pressure on our members of Congress to vote the right way.”
There’s no set time frame for this organizing work; Burger’s position will run for at least the next few months.
“PEOPLE ARE READY TO TAKE ACTION”
During his second week on the job, Burger held two large Zoom calls for volunteers. More than 600 people participated in the April 2 virtual meeting for Iowans in the first district. At least 250 people were on the April 4 call in the third district—a big turnout for a Friday evening.
How did they pull in so many people on short notice? Bernie’s “got the best list in politics,” Burger said. It helped that hundreds had signed up at the “Fighting Oligarchy” event in Iowa City. Staff followed up with emails, texts, and phone calls. People were spreading the word on social media too.
These aren’t just the usual suspects who caucused for Bernie in 2016 or 2020. Most who attended the Iowa City rally were new to the Friends of Bernie Sanders list, Burger told me. (Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign manager, recently told Micah Sifry of The American Prospect that around 65 percent of people attending “Fighting Oligarchy” events around the country are new to their list.)
As people get involved, it’s not about “who did you support in 2020?” Burger said. “We know that democracy’s under attack, our economy’s under attack, vulnerable members of our community are under attack. It’s going to take all of us, and we all need to be fighting back together.”
He has talked to Iowans who didn’t support Sanders for president in 2016 or 2020, but are “so excited a national political figure” is putting resources into this state.
“Clearly we’re tapping into anger and frustration and energy,” Burger said. “People are ready to take action.”
“GOOD, OLD-FASHIONED GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING”
Burger provided access to videos of both organizing calls, which I watched this weekend.
A leading topic was generating a large turnout for the “Hands Off” rallies planned around the country for April 5. Burger encouraged people to bring friends to those protests, as a way to show the large and growing resistance to the Trump agenda. He emphasized that it’s important to RSVP ahead of time so organizers would know how many people to expect.
He also previewed “more targeted events” and “good, old-fashioned grassroots organizing” to come later.
Other activists joined the calls to talk about what’s been happening in their communities since the November election. Tom Carsner spoke about Iowa City events. Kay Pence described Scott County Democrats’ work to elect Mike Zimmer to the Iowa Senate, along with other Quad Cities events such as an “empty chair” town hall. Sue Thompson, the lead organizer for the Iowa City “Hands Off” protest, explained what they were planning.
On the April 4 call, volunteers heard from Polk County Democrats executive director Kira Barker, Denise O’Brien of Southwest Iowa Indivisible, and Michaelyn Mankel, an organizer with Food & Water Watch who took the lead in coordinating the “Hands Off” rally in Des Moines.
Mankel talked about key messages to unite those who “oppose the billionaire coup and efforts by Musk to dismantle the federal government.” She characterized the right’s “scapegoating” of vulnerable people—such as through legislative attacks on immigrants, DEI, or transgender people—as a “weapon of mass distraction.” By encouraging ordinary people to focus on those with little power, conservatives seek to shield the billionaire class that is seizing more wealth and degrading our standard of living.
O’Brien highlighted efforts to show that rural Iowa is not all red. That could mean 20 people showing up to an event in a town of 5,000. Southwest Iowa Indivisible put on a town hall where 77 people came to talk to “a picture of Zach Nunn.” (Nunn has never held a public town hall meeting since being elected to Congress in 2022.) O’Brien also suggested that progressives write letters to the editor, and run for local offices or recruit others to do so.
Burger urged people on the calls to commit to further action beyond the Hands Off rallies. They are collecting Iowans’ personal stories about the budget cuts, because “stories are extremely powerful. Our representatives need to hear firsthand how their policies are affecting real people,” he said.
In addition, Burger explained, many Americans interact with politics through stories. One example: the park ranger at Effigy Mounds National Monument, who went viral after DOGE eliminated his position. (He was later reinstated.) Sanders’ staff want to lift up personal accounts not only from federal workers, but from anyone who relies on a government program like Medicaid or Social Security.
The campaign may put some of these people in touch with journalists, if they are willing to talk to the media about their experiences. Staff will also create video testimonials for Bernie Sanders to share on his social media accounts, which collectively reach tens of millions of people.
Other future actions may include delivering messages to district offices of Miller-Meeks and Nunn, or organizing empty chair town halls. Some Iowa events on protecting the U.S. Postal Service are scheduled for the coming weeks.
Burger is “a big believer in door knocking,” he told volunteers on the IA-03 call. “I think there’s something magical about the face-to-face conversations that you have on the doors” which doesn’t happen anywhere else. These canvassers won’t be asking people to vote for any candidate. Rather, they will be talking about the issues related to the federal budget, sharing personal stories, and encouraging Iowans to contact Nunn or Miller-Meeks about their concerns.
There will be “plenty of training and support” for the canvassers, Burger said. While the IA-03 call was ongoing, he was pleased to see 50 people had already signed up to knock doors.
“WE STAND TOGETHER, WE CAN WIN THIS THING”
Sanders joined each call for several minutes, to thank people for participating and explain his goals.
The senator sat next to his chief of staff Misty Rebik during the IA-01 call. Rebik grew up in Iowa and managed Sanders’ 2020 caucus campaign. Before that she managed Cathy Glasson’s 2018 Democratic primary campaign for governor.
Sanders began by acknowledging the dire situation we’re in. “This country is moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society where Elon Musk and a bunch of other billionaires are essentially running our government for their own interests,” he told the IA-03 volunteers. The president doesn’t believe in the Constitution “and is moving us rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society,” going after major universities and “picking up young people, foreign students, literally off the streets.”
But the “American people are prepared to stand up and fight back,” Sanders said. He characterized the Republican budget as “a total disaster”; Medicaid cuts alone would throw millions of people off health care and reduce access to nursing homes and community health centers. By cutting staff at Social Security and the Veterans Administration, Musk’s people are threatening services elderly people and veterans need.
“And a lot of people are demoralized and saying, what the hell is going on?” Sanders said.
He discussed the rallies he’s held in Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. Everywhere “the turnout was far greater than we had dreamed possible.” His “Fighting Oligarchy” event in Denver featuring U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the largest rally he’s ever held, drawing around 34,000 people. He and AOC will soon go to California, and he’s also planning events in Idaho, Utah, and Montana.
These rallies are a means to an end, Sanders said. The end is “what we’re doing tonight.” The goal is to “put together a grassroots movement, especially in those districts where Republicans have won by slim margins.” Referring to Nunn, Sanders said, “He can be beaten. He can be beaten, and also, pressure can be put on him” to vote against the reconciliation bill that would give tax breaks to billionaires while slashing Medicaid, education, and other valuable programs.
Sanders said Burger would collect suggestions on what to do next. That could include empty chair town halls, house parties where people can connect with each other, and distributing literature at the doors, in order to convey what’s at stake to average citizens. Every community may have their own ideas, the senator said. In the coming months, the goal is “to build a strong grassroots movement to force members of Congress not to vote against working people.”
Longer term, Sanders hopes to “defeat members of Congress who are not sympathetic to the needs of workers.” Longer term than that, he wants to build a grassroots movement for a government that works for everyone and not just for the billionaire class and campaign contributors.
Near the end of his remarks to activists in the first district, Sanders thanked them again for the work they were doing. “The future of our great country is at stake. And I absolutely believe that if we stand together, and not let Trump and his friends divide us up […] We stand together, we can win this thing. I really do believe that.”
“COMMUNITY BUILDING IS REALLY IMPORTANT”
Rebik said a few words to the IA-01 volunteers after Sanders spoke. “Even in times like this when it feels like everything is stacked against us,” she said, individual actions that people can take every day matter. “Community building is really important.”
That could involve checking in with anyone you see regularly, like a day care provider, about how they are doing. “Connecting with your neighbors, talking to people from all different places on the political spectrum is how we’re going to beat this thing. And we just can’t let it be easy for them.” Right now it’s easy for them, Rebik said, because Republicans in Congress do everything Trump tells them to do.
“You can make this a harder decision for her [Miller-Meeks] and pressure her to at least have to think twice. So that’s what this is about, using your power and your voice,” Rebik said.
During our telephone interview, I asked Burger what would he tell Democrats who feel despondent or hopeless in the face of everything the Trump administration has been doing.
“Come out to one of these events on Saturday, and tell me how you feel then,” he said. In the first month after Trump’s inauguration, it was hard to know how to respond to “this onslaught,” which was worse than many Democrats expected. But Burger feels “the tide is turning. People are taking that anger and frustration and channeling it into action.” He expected the April 5 rallies to “show that in a big way.”
Despite cold and windy weather, thousands of Iowans turned out for fifteen Hands Off rallies around the state. The largest gatherings were in Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and Davenport. Events in Ames, Waterloo, and Dubuque each attracted hundreds of people. Southwest Iowa Indivisible’s work paid off, as 150 people showed up in tiny Red Oak (Montgomery County).
At the state capitol this legislative session and at smaller events for Bleeding Heartland around Iowa, I’ve seen the value of these connections first-hand. Not all rallies are immediately successful—Republicans approved the transgender discrimination bill despite some of the largest protests ever seen at the Iowa statehouse. Nevertheless, many people have mentioned to me that it was uplifting just to spend a few hours with like-minded Iowans.
I’ll be checking in with Evan Burger again as his work unfolds this spring and summer.
How can people be in touch with Evan Burger?
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