CLEVELAND With three days to go before a special election that both the moderate Democratic establishment and the progressive left see as a referendum on the future of the Democratic Party , key national spokespeople for each faction converged on Cleveland to pitch voters on their preferred candidates.

Alongside a cast of state and local elected officials and rank-and-file activists, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and public intellectual Cornel West made the case to a rally of some 900 people that electing former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner for Ohios 11th Congressional District is an essential next step in the fight for a more just and equitable country.

Sanders began by offering a variety of reasons he might have come to speak on Turners behalf, including his loyalty to her as a friend and his admiration for her personality.

Then he revealed a more important factor. The real reason I am here and I speak as chairperson of the Senate Budget Committee is we desperately need her in the U.S. Congress , he declared to loud cheers.