Nurses, other activists in Iowa for Sanders

CEDAR RAPIDS - They may not have the gravitas of Bill Clinton or the star power of Billie Jean King and Jamie Lee Curtis, but a busload of nurses think its message of support for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will change minds.

'People trust us,” says Jean Ross, a Bloomington, Minn., nurse who has been spending weekends knocking on Iowans' doors asking them to support Sanders. 'We trust Bernie.”

Sanders' values mirror nurses' values, she said during a stop in Cedar Rapids on Thursday.

'We look out for the public, and we need a leader who looks out for the public welfare,” Ross said.

Ross and other members of the National Nurses Union, Communications Workers of America, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund and Americans for Democratic Action are touring the state through the Feb. 1 caucuses to campaign for Sanders. They also participated in a Sanders' rally in Iowa City on Thursday and caucus training.

Longtime progressive commentator national radio commentator and author Jim Hightower is canvassing the state with them to make the case that Americans need a bold leader like Sanders.

'He's not a trimmer or a tweaker,” the former Texas commissioner of agriculture said. 'We're in a heap of hurt, and Washington is not doing anything.

'Republicans don't want to do anything, and the Democrats just want to tweak things,” Hightower said. 'We're at one of those ‘we, the people, moments' Thomas Jefferson wrote about where big change is needed.”

The bus tour is scheduled to be in Dubuque today and in Davenport on Saturday to work the telephones and attend a rally.