New Sanders TV Ads: We Need Real Political Change in Chicago and America

Press Release

Bernie Sanders' campaign released three new 30-second television commercials in Illinois on Friday. One features Cook County Commissioner Jesús (Chuy) García, a recent candidate for mayor. Another ad features Troy LaRaviere, a Chicago public schools principal. The ads call for major political changes in Chicago.

"People in this community badly want and need a fair shot," the commissioner says. "For too long, politicians haven't quite stood up for them. Bernie Sanders is about giving everyone an opportunity to do better. This is a year for transformative change. If you are beholden to big money, you will not be a transformative leader."

In the second ad, the principal says, "In Chicago, we have endured a corrupt political system. And the chief politician standing in the way of us getting good schools is our mayor. If you have a presidential candidate that supports someone like our mayor, you have a candidate who is not willing to take on the establishment," says LaRaviere. "Bernie Sanders is definitely not afraid to take on the system. He looks beyond that system and sees better possibilities for us. He sees that this is not the way it has to be."

In December, Sanders called for "any official who helped suppress the videotape of Laquan McDonald's murder [to] be held accountable." As a candidate, Sanders has made criminal justice reform a key issue in his campaign.

As a college student at the University of Chicago, Sanders was a leader of the Congress for Racial Equality. In 1963, he was arrested while participating in protests to desegregate public schools in Chicago. "The fight against injustice and inequality has been the work of his life," the narrator says in the third ad entitled "Work of His Life."

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