Watch Live Stream: Bernie Sanders Rallies in Des Moines, Iowa for Hillary Clinton

UPDATED at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday DES MOINES, IA — As Hillary Clinton works to crank up enthusiasm for her presidential candidacy among key voting groups — blue-collar workers and millennials to name two demographics — her one-time challenger for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, will campaign in Des Moines Wednesday, Oct. 5, on her behalf.

Last week the Clinton campaign said Sanders would be in Iowa City, Davenport and Des Moines on Monday. But those events were canceled Sunday night, and the appearance in Des Moines — Iowa's largest city — was moved to Wednesday.

The self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, who was slammed in leaked emails among Democratic national party leaders and staffers, has said that he will work to ensure GOP nominee Donald Trump is not elected.

Iowa is one of about a dozen battleground states that could decide the 2016 race to the White House. Wednesday’s event will be held at Drake University’s Bell Center in Des Moines. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. for the 10:30 a.m. CT rally. Click here to RSVP.

Sanders is expected to talk about Clinton's plans for the economy, fighting climate change, education and crime in his appearances.

The latest average of national polls by Real Clear Politics shows Clinton with a narrow 2-point lead over Trump, 47.5 percent to 45 percent. Clinton led Trump 43-40 percent in a poll of likely voters released Friday by Fox News. A Huffington Post compilation of the latest opinion polls gives Clinton a slightly bigger lead, 47.9 percent to 43.1 percent for Trump.

Iowa has been fairly safe territory for Democrats in the past two elections, when President Barack Obama won easily, but the midterm elections tilted the balance of power in the state and turned it red. Both senators are Republicans, the governor is a Republican and only one member of Iowa’s congressional delegation is a Democrat.

Iowa has only a handful of electoral votes — six – but in a tight race, every electoral vote counts, and both candidates are focusing on Iowa. The former secretary of state — who barely survived Iowa’s first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses to start the nomination process in January —is trailing Republican nominee Trump by almost five points in Iowa, according to a Real Clear Politics polling average.

The rally in Iowa comes three days after Clinton campaigned in the capital city of Des Moines and one week after Clinton and Trump met in the first of three presidential debates. Clinton is riding a psychological bump and claims to have won the showdown, while Trump claimed a victory in online polls — including one by Patch — that are unscientific.

Democratic National Committee staffers showed a fair amount of prejudice against Sanders. The emails leaked in July purported to show that DNC staffers mocked the Sanders campaign and reacted negatively to criticism in the media that they were biased toward Clinton.

Amid criticism over the email contents, shared by WikiLeaks, DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned from her post after the convention in Philadelphia as the party came together under a semblance of unity to back Clinton.

Watch the live stream of Sanders' Des Moines rally on Wednesday below.

Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons