Thousands of people filled Williams Arena on the U of M campus Sunday night for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The rally was hosted with support from U-S Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Sanders said that because of their different backgrounds some people say he and Omar make “an odd political couple.” But Sanders disagreed adding “Ilhan and I share a common link as the descendants of families who fled violence and poverty, but that is not just my story or Ilhan’s story, that is the story of America.” Bernie evoked the name of his former colleague in the Senate–the late Paul Wellstone–and promised “we are going to win in Minnesota and we are going to implement that progressive agenda that Paul spent his life fighting for.” Sanders touched on several key issues impacting voters, including healthcare, student loan debt, immigration and wealth inequality. President Donald Trump visited Minneapolis last month and says he can win Minnesota in the 2020 election, but Bernie Sanders at his rally Sunday night said he will defeat Trump here and across the country “because we are going to do exactly the opposite of what Trump is doing, he’s trying to divide us up, we’re going to bring our people together.” The state Republican party, however, calls Sanders’ agenda “extreme and socialist” and calls his proposals “dangerous” and “radical.”Minnesota has not favored a Republican candidate for president since Richard Nixon. Trump says he confident he will change that. Rep. Omar, who was a target of President Trump during his rally in Minneapolis last month, on Sunday criticized Trump’s immigration policy and said “here in Minnesota we don’t just welcome refugees, but we send them to Congress.” At his rally in Minneapolis last month, Trump called Omar “an America hating socialist” and he expressed shock that she won a seat in Congress asking those in the crowd “how did it happen?” Many of the 10-thousand or so people in Williams Arena Sunday for the Bernie Sanders rally said the Vermont Democrat is “is their guy.” Asked why Senator Amy Klobuchar–who’s also a Democratic candidate for president–wasn’t her first choice, Kat from Minneapolis says she supports Bernie Sanders over Klobuchar because “Klobuchar has sold Minnesotans short on the things that we support and can get done, I think she’s undermined her own party in constantly advocating for a middle of the road initiative.” Tyler from South Minneapolis said he’s voting blue no matter what, but he “would like to see Bernie on the ticket because I think he would engage a lot of the people that feel kind of left out.”