The pre-midterm-election blitz begins on October 19 in Indiana, where the Vermont independent will stump in Bloomington for Liz Watson, who is trying to unseat Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, and ends October 27 in Oakland, California, with a rally for Rep. Barbara Lee, a longtime progressive stalwart who could join the House Democratic leadership next year. In between, Sanders is slated to hit the ground in a series of key 2020 primary and general election states, including Iowa -- he'll make three stops there over two days for J.D. Scholten, who is challenging GOP Rep. Steve King -- and Columbia, South Carolina, for a rally with Our Revolution, the group that emerged from Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. He will host a pair of town halls, in Iowa and Indiana, to warn against cuts to Social Security.

Sanders will also return to Michigan to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gretchen Whitmer in Ann Arbor on the second half of the tour's first day. On October 22, Sanders will head to Wisconsin for a rally with Sen. Tammy Baldwin and other Badger State Democrats in Milwaukee, before heading west to Arizona, Colorado and Nevada. His Western swing begins with a pair of events with progressive favorite David Garcia, who is challenging Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. The incumbent has a comfortable lead in most polling, but Garcia, who is Mexican-American, has touted his candidacy as a means of engaging and energizing the Latino vote in a state President Donald Trump won by less than 4 percentage points.

Then it's off to Colorado, a state Sanders won in the 2016 primary, for rallies in Boulder and Fort Collins backing Rep. Jared Polis, who is favored to become the first openly gay man elected governor in US history. In Nevada, Sanders will hit Reno and Las Vegas to support Rep. Jacky Rosen in her race to unseat Republican Sen. Dean Heller. For the Democrats to have any chance of taking over the Senate next year, Rosen would need to oust Heller in a campaign CNN has rated as a toss-up with early voting less than two weeks away.

Before Sanders wraps his nationwide swing in California with Lee up in Oakland, he will rally down in San Diego with House candidates Mike Levin, who is vying to take over retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa's seat, and Ammar Campa-Najjar, whose bid to flip the district held by Rep. Duncan Hunter got a major boost when the Republican and his wife were indicted in August on charges of spending campaign cash on personal expenses like travel and clothing

The state, home to the first-in-the-South presidential primaries, is accustomed to hosting candidates testing out their messaging and building activist and donor relationships ahead of a national run. But some party stalwarts say Sanders’ left-leaning, progressive message doesn’t resonate in a state where Democrats know they will need crossover support to win in many races.

Amanda Loveday served as executive director of South Carolina’s Democratic Party and previously did communications for U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state’s lone congressional Democrat. Asked about Sanders’ visit to South Carolina, she said the trip is not in the best interest of the state’s Democratic candidates.

“I just think it’s extremely selfish of Bernie Sanders to think he could walk into South Carolina without an invitation from a candidate and think he’s going to be welcomed with open arms,” Loveday said. “It’s hard for me to think of an actual, legitimate Democratic candidate who would stand on stage with him here.”

Sanders’ Tuesday announcement of his planned trip to South Carolina came the same day that the state’s Republican governor aimed to link him to his Democratic challenger. In a new digital ad , Gov. Henry McMaster pointed out that, despite his self-portrayal as a moderate, state Rep. James Smith has boasted of his endorsement by Our Revolution, an offshoot of Sanders’ 2016 presidential effort.