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Bernie Sanders

Bernard Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Vermont, a seat he has held since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007. Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. He has a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career.[1] A self-described democratic socialist, he is often seen as a leader of the progressive movement in the United States. Sanders unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States in 2016 and 2020, finishing in second place in both campaigns. Before his election to Congress, he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont.

Bernie Sanders
Sanders in March 2020
United States Senator
from Vermont
Assumed office
January 3, 2007
Serving with Peter Welch
Preceded byJim Jeffords
Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Assumed office
January 3, 2023
Preceded byPatty Murray
Chair of the Senate Budget Committee
In office
February 3, 2021 – January 3, 2023
Preceded byMike Enzi
Succeeded bySheldon Whitehouse
Chair of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee
In office
January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2015
Preceded byPatty Murray
Succeeded byJohnny Isakson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Vermont's at-large district
In office
January 3, 1991 – January 3, 2007
Preceded byPeter Plympton Smith
Succeeded byPeter Welch
37th Mayor of Burlington
In office
April 6, 1981 – April 4, 1989
Preceded byGordon Paquette
Succeeded byPeter Clavelle
Personal details
Born
Bernard Sanders

(1941-09-08) September 8, 1941 (age 81)
New York City, U.S.
Political partyIndependent (1978–present)
Other political
affiliations
Spouses
  • Deborah Shiling
    (m. 1964; div. 1966)
  • (m. 1988)
Children1[c]
RelativesLarry Sanders (brother) Larry David (cousin)
Education
Occupation
  • Politician
  • activist
  • author
Signature
Website
  • Senate website
  • Campaign website

Born into a working-class Jewish family and raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, Sanders attended Brooklyn College before graduating from the University of Chicago in 1964. While a student, he was a protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the civil rights movement. After settling in Vermont in 1968, he ran unsuccessful third-party political campaigns in the early to mid-1970s. He was elected mayor of Burlington in 1981 as an independent and was reelected three times. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990, representing Vermont's at-large congressional district, later co-founding the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He served as a U.S. representative for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006, notably becoming the first non-Republican elected to the seat in 152 years. Sanders was reelected to the Senate in 2012 and 2018. He chaired the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee from 2013 to 2015 and the Senate Budget Committee from 2021 to 2023. In January 2023, he became chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the senior senator and dean of the Vermont congressional delegation upon Patrick Leahy's retirement from the Senate.

Sanders was a major candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. Despite initially low expectations, his 2016 campaign generated significant grassroots enthusiasm and funding from small-dollar donors, carrying him to victory against eventual nominee Hillary Clinton in 23 primaries and caucuses before he conceded in July.[2] In 2020, his strong showing in early primaries and caucuses made him the front-runner in a historically large field of Democratic candidates. In April 2020, Sanders conceded the nomination to Joe Biden, who had won a series of decisive victories as the field narrowed. He supported both Clinton and Biden in their respective general election campaigns against Donald Trump.

Sanders self-identifies as a democratic socialist and has been credited with influencing a leftward shift in the Democratic Party after his 2016 presidential campaign. An advocate of social democratic and progressive policies, he is known for his opposition to economic inequality and neoliberalism. On domestic policy, he supports labor rights, universal and single-payer healthcare, paid parental leave, tuition-free tertiary education, and an ambitious Green New Deal to create jobs addressing climate change. On foreign policy, he supports reducing military spending, pursuing more diplomacy and international cooperation, and putting greater emphasis on labor rights and environmental concerns when negotiating international trade agreements. Sanders supports workplace democracy, and has praised elements of the Nordic model. Some have compared his politics to left-wing populism and the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Early life

 
Sanders as a senior in high school, 1959

Bernard Sanders was born on September 8, 1941, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.[3] His father, Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders (1904–1962),[4] was born in Słopnice, a town in Austrian Galicia that was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is now in Poland.[5][6] Elias Sanders immigrated to the United States in 1921 and became a paint salesman.[5][7][8] Bernie's mother, Dorothy Sanders (née Glassberg) (1912–1960), was born in New York City.[9][10] He is the younger brother of Larry Sanders.

Sanders says he became interested in politics at an early age due to his family background.[11] In the 1940s, many of his relatives in German-occupied Poland were murdered in the Holocaust.[4][10][12]

Sanders lived in Midwood, Brooklyn.[3] He attended elementary school at P.S. 197, where he won a borough championship on the basketball team.[13][14] He attended Hebrew school in the afternoons, and celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1954.[12] His older brother Larry said that during their childhood, the family never lacked for food or clothing, but major purchases, "like curtains or a rug", were not affordable.[15]

Sanders attended James Madison High School, where he was captain of the track team and took third place in the New York City indoor one-mile race.[13] In high school, he lost his first election, finishing last of three candidates for the student body presidency with a campaign that focused on aiding Korean War orphans. Despite the loss, he became active in his school's fundraising activities for Korean orphans, including organizing a charity basketball game.[16] Sanders attended high school with economist Walter Block.[17] When he was 19, his mother died at age 46.[10][12] His father died two years later in 1962 at age 57.[6]

Sanders studied at Brooklyn College for a year in 1959–1960[18] before transferring to the University of Chicago and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1964.[18] In later interviews, Sanders described himself as a mediocre college student because the classroom was "boring and irrelevant", and said he viewed community activism as more important to his education.[19]

Early career

Political activism

Sanders later described his time in Chicago as "the major period of intellectual ferment in my life."[20] While there, he joined the Young People's Socialist League (the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party of America)[21] and was active in the civil rights movement as a student for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).[10][22] Under his chairmanship, the university chapter of CORE merged with the university chapter of the SNCC.[23] In January 1962, he went to a rally at the University of Chicago administration building to protest university president George Wells Beadle's segregated campus housing policy. At the protest, Sanders said, "We feel it is an intolerable situation when Negro and white students of the university cannot live together in university-owned apartments". He and 32 other students then entered the building and camped outside the president's office.[24][25] After weeks of sit-ins, Beadle and the university formed a commission to investigate discrimination.[26] After further protests, the University of Chicago ended racial segregation in private university housing in the summer of 1963.[20]

Joan Mahoney, a member of the University of Chicago CORE chapter at the time and a fellow participant in the sit-ins, described Sanders in a 2016 interview as "a swell guy, a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn, but he wasn't terribly charismatic. One of his strengths, though, was his ability to work with a wide group of people, even those he didn't agree with."[27] Sanders once spent a day putting up fliers protesting police brutality, only to notice later that Chicago police had shadowed him and taken them all down.[24] He attended the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech.[10][24][28] That summer, Sanders was fined $25 (equivalent to $221 in 2021) for resisting arrest during a demonstration in Englewood against segregation in Chicago's public schools.[20][29][30]

In addition to his civil rights activism during the 1960s and 1970s,[23] Sanders was active in several peace and antiwar movements while attending the University of Chicago, becoming a member of the Student Peace Union. He applied for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War; his application was eventually turned down, by which point he was too old to be drafted. Although he opposed the war, Sanders never criticized those who fought in it, and has strongly supported veterans' benefits throughout his political career.[31][32] He also was briefly an organizer with the United Packinghouse Workers of America while in Chicago.[20] He also worked on the reelection campaign of Leon Despres, a prominent Chicago alderman who opposed then-mayor Richard J. Daley's Democratic Party machine. Sanders said that he spent much of his student years reading history, sociology, psychology, and the works of political authors, from Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John Dewey, Karl Marx, and Erich Fromm—"reading everything except what I was supposed to read for class the next day."[1][33]

Professional history and early years in Vermont

After graduating from college, Sanders returned to New York City, where he worked various jobs, including Head Start teacher, psychiatric aide, and carpenter.[19] In 1968, he moved to Stannard, Vermont, a town small in both area and population (88 residents at the 1970 census) within Vermont's rural Northeast Kingdom region, because he had been "captivated by rural life". While there, he worked as a carpenter,[21] filmmaker, and writer[34] who created and sold "radical film strips" and other educational materials to schools.[35] He also wrote several articles for the alternative publication The Vermont Freeman.[36] He lived in the area for several years before moving to the more populous Chittenden County in the mid-1970s. During his 2018 reelection campaign, he returned to the town to hold an event with voters and other candidates.[37]

Liberty Union campaigns

Sanders began his electoral political career in 1971 as a member of the Liberty Union Party, a national umbrella party for various socialist-oriented state parties, originating in the anti-war movement and the People's Party. He ran as the Liberty Union candidate for governor of Vermont in 1972 and 1976 and as a candidate in the special election for U.S. senator in 1972 and in the general election in 1974.[38] In the 1974 senatorial race, he finished third (5,901 votes; 4%), behind 33-year-old Chittenden County state's attorney Patrick Leahy (D; 70,629 votes; 49%) and two-term incumbent U.S. Representative Dick Mallary (R; 66,223 votes; 46%).[39][40]

The 1976 campaign was the zenith of the Liberty Union's influence, with Sanders collecting 11,317 votes for governor and the party. His strong performance forced the down-ballot races for lieutenant governor and secretary of state to be decided by the state legislature when its vote total prevented either the Republican or Democratic candidate for those offices from garnering a majority of votes.[41] The campaign drained the finances and energy of the Liberty Union, however, and in October 1977, less than a year after the 1976 campaign concluded, he and the Liberty Union candidate for attorney general, Nancy Kaufman, announced their retirement from the party.[41][42] During the 1980 presidential election, Sanders served as one of three electors for the Socialist Workers Party in Vermont.[43]

After his resignation from the Liberty Union Party in 1977, Sanders worked as a writer and as the director of the nonprofit American People's Historical Society (APHS).[44] While with the APHS, he produced a 30-minute documentary about American labor leader Eugene V. Debs, who ran for president five times as the Socialist Party candidate.[21][45]

Mayor of Burlington, Vermont (1981–1989)

 
Burlington City Hall

Campaigns

On November 8, 1980, Sanders announced his candidacy for mayor. He formally announced his campaign on December 16 at a City Hall press conference.[46][47] Sanders selected Linda Niedweske as his campaign manager.[48] The Citizens Party attempted to nominate Greg Guma for mayor, but Guma declined, saying it would be "difficult to run against another progressive candidate".[49] Sanders had been convinced to run for the mayoralty by his close friend Richard Sugarman, an Orthodox Jewish professor of religious studies at the University of Vermont, who had shown him a ward-by-ward breakdown of the 1976 Vermont gubernatorial election, in which Sanders had run, that showed him receiving 12% of the vote in Burlington despite only getting 6% statewide.[50]

Sanders initially won the mayoral election by 22 votes against Paquette, Bove, and McGrath, but the margin was later reduced to 10 votes. Paquette did not contest the results of the recount.[51]

Paquette's loss was attributed to his own shortcomings, as he did not campaign or promote his candidacy since both Sanders and Independent candidate Richard Bove were not seen as a serious challengers, as Sanders had not previously won an election.[52] Paquette was also considered to have lost because he proposed an unpopular $0.65 per $100 raise in taxes that Sanders opposed.[53] Sanders spent around $4,000 on his campaign.[54]

Sanders castigated the pro-development incumbent as an ally of prominent shopping center developer Antonio Pomerleau, while Paquette warned of ruin for Burlington if Sanders were elected. The Sanders campaign was bolstered by a wave of optimistic volunteers as well as a series of endorsements from university professors, social welfare agencies, and the police union. The result shocked the local political establishment.[41]

Sanders formed a coalition between independents and the Citizens Party.[55] On December 3, 1982, he announced that he would seek reelection.[56] On January 22, 1983, the Citizens Party voted unanimously to endorse Sanders, although Sanders ran as an independent.[57] He was reelected, defeating Judy Stephany and James Gilson.[58]

Sanders initially considered not seeking a third term, but announced on December 5, 1984, that he would run.[59] He formally launched his campaign on December 7, and was reelected.[60][61] On December 1, 1986, Sanders, who had finished third in the 1986 Vermont gubernatorial election, announced that he would seek reelection to a fourth term as mayor of Burlington, despite close associates stating that he was tired of being mayor.[62] Sanders defeated Democratic nominee Paul Lafayette in the election.[63] He said he would not seek another mayoral term after the 1987 election: "eight years is enough and I think it is time for new leadership, which does exist within the coalition, to come up".[64]

Sanders did not run for a fifth term as mayor. He went on to lecture in political science at Harvard Kennedy School that year and at Hamilton College in 1991.[65]

Administration

During his mayoralty, Sanders called himself a socialist and was so described in the press.[66][67] During his first term, his supporters, including the first Citizens Party city councilor Terry Bouricius, formed the Progressive Coalition, the forerunner of the Vermont Progressive Party.[68] The Progressives never held more than six seats on the 13-member city council, but they had enough to keep the council from overriding Sanders's vetoes. Under his leadership, Burlington balanced its city budget; attracted a minor league baseball team, the Vermont Reds, then the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds;[10] became the first U.S. city to fund community-trust housing;[69] and successfully sued the local cable television franchise, thereby winning reduced rates for customers.[10]

As mayor, Sanders also led extensive downtown revitalization projects. One of his primary achievements was improving Burlington's Lake Champlain waterfront.[10] In 1981, he campaigned against the unpopular plans by Burlington developer Tony Pomerleau to convert the then-industrial[70] waterfront property owned by the Central Vermont Railway into expensive condominiums, hotels, and offices.[71] He ran under the slogan "Burlington is not for sale" and successfully supported a plan that redeveloped the waterfront area into a mixed-use district featuring housing, parks, and public spaces.[71]

Sanders was a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America throughout the 1980s.[72] In 1985, Burlington City Hall hosted a foreign policy speech by Noam Chomsky. In his introduction, he praised Chomsky as "a very vocal and important voice in the wilderness of intellectual life in America" and said that he was "delighted to welcome a person who I think we're all very proud of."[73][74]

Sanders hosted and produced a public-access television program, Bernie Speaks with the Community, from 1986 to 1988.[75][76] He collaborated with 30 Vermont musicians to record a folk album, We Shall Overcome, in 1987.[77][78] That same year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Sanders one of America's best mayors.[79][80] As of 2013, Burlington was regarded as one of the most livable cities in the United States.[81][82]

When Sanders left office in 1989, Bouricius, a member of the Burlington city council, said that Sanders had "changed the entire nature of politics in Burlington and also in the state of Vermont".[83]

U.S. House of Representatives (1991–2007)

 
Representative Sanders in 1991
 
Sanders meeting in 1993 with Hillary Clinton to discuss her plan to reform the healthcare system

Elections

In 1988, incumbent Republican congressman Jim Jeffords decided to run for the U.S. Senate, vacating the House seat representing Vermont's at-large congressional district. Former Lieutenant Governor Peter P. Smith won the House election with a plurality, securing 41% of the vote. Sanders, who ran as an independent, placed second with 38% of the vote, while Democratic state representative Paul N. Poirier placed third with 19%.[84] Two years later, he ran for the seat again and defeated Smith by a margin of 56% to 39%.[85]

Sanders was the first independent elected to the U.S. House of Representatives since Frazier Reams of Ohio won his second term in 1952,[86] as well as the first socialist elected to the House since Vito Marcantonio, from the American Labor Party, who won his last term in 1948.[87][86] Sanders served as a representative from 1991 until he became a senator in 2007, winning reelection by large margins except during the 1994 Republican Revolution, when he won by 3%, with 50% of the vote.[88]

Legislation

 
Sanders meeting with students at Milton High School in Milton, Vermont, 2004

During his first year in the House, Sanders often alienated allies and colleagues with his criticism of both political parties as working primarily on behalf of the wealthy. In 1991, he co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of mostly liberal Democrats that he chaired for its first eight years,[10] while still refusing to join the Democratic Party or caucus.[89]

In 2005, Rolling Stone called Sanders the "amendment king" for his ability to get more roll call amendments passed than any other congressman during the period since 1995, when Congress was entirely under Republican control. Being an independent allowed him to form coalitions across party lines.[90]

Banking reform

In 1999, Sanders voted and advocated against rolling back the Glass–Steagall legislation provisions that kept investment banks and commercial banks separate entities.[91] He was a vocal critic of Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan; in June 2003, during a question-and-answer discussion, Sanders told him he was concerned that he was "way out of touch" and "that you see your major function in your position as the need to represent the wealthy and large corporations."[92][93][94][95]

Cancer registries

Concerned by high breast cancer rates in Vermont, on February 7, 1992, Sanders sponsored the Cancer Registries Amendment Act to establish cancer registries to collect data on cancer.[96][97] Senator Patrick Leahy introduced a companion bill in the Senate on October 2, 1992. The Senate bill was passed by the House on October 6 and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on October 24, 1992.[98]

Firearms and criminal justice

In 1993, Sanders voted against the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks when buying guns and imposed a waiting period on firearm purchasers in the United States; the bill passed by a vote of 238–187.[99][100] He voted against the bill four more times in the 1990s, explaining his Vermont constituents saw waiting-period mandates as more appropriately a state than federal matter.[101]

Sanders did vote for other gun-control measures.[102][99] For example, in 1994, he voted for the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act "because it included the Violence Against Women Act and the ban on certain assault weapons." He was nevertheless critical of the other parts of the bill.[103][104] Although he acknowledged that "clearly, there are some people in our society who are horribly violent, who are deeply sick and sociopathic, and clearly these people must be put behind bars in order to protect society from them", he maintained that governmental policies played a large part in "dooming tens of millions of young people to a future of bitterness, misery, hopelessness, drugs, crime, and violence" and argued that the repressive policies introduced by the bill were not addressing the causes of violence, saying, "we can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we can build more jails."[105]

Sanders has at times favored stronger law enforcement and sentencing. In 1996, he voted against a bill that would have prohibited police from purchasing tanks and armored carriers.[106][107] In 1998, he voted for a bill that would have increased minimum sentencing for possessing a gun while committing a federal crime to ten years in prison, including nonviolent crimes such as marijuana possession.[106][99][108]

In 2005, Sanders voted for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.[109] The purpose of the act was to prevent firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for negligence when crimes have been committed with their products.[110] As of 2016, he said that he has since changed his position and would vote for legislation to defeat this bill.[111]

Opposition to the Patriot Act

Sanders was a consistent critic of the Patriot Act.[112] As a member of Congress, he voted against the original Patriot Act legislation.[113] After its 357–66 passage in the House, he sponsored and voted for several subsequent amendments and acts attempting to curtail its effects[114] and voted against each reauthorization.[115] In June 2005, he proposed an amendment to limit Patriot Act provisions that allow the government to obtain individuals' library and book-buying records. The amendment passed the House by a bipartisan majority, but was removed on November 4 of that year in House–Senate negotiations and never became law.[116]

Opposition to the War in Iraq

Sanders voted against the resolutions authorizing the use of force against Iraq in 1991 and 2002, and he opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He voted for the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists[117] that has been cited as the legal justification for controversial military actions since the September 11 attacks.[118] He especially opposed the Bush administration's decision to start a war unilaterally.[119][120]

Trade policy

In February 2005, Sanders introduced a bill that would have withdrawn the permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) status that had been extended to China in October 2000. He said to the House, "Anyone who takes an objective look at our trade policy with China must conclude that it is an absolute failure and needs to be fundamentally overhauled", citing the American jobs being lost to overseas competitors. His bill received 71 co-sponsors but was not sent to the floor for a vote.[121][122]

U.S. Senate (2007–present)

 
Senate portrait, 2007

Elections

2006

Sanders entered the race for the U.S. Senate on April 21, 2005, after Senator Jim Jeffords announced that he would not seek a fourth term. Chuck Schumer, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and fellow James Madison High School alumnus, endorsed Sanders. This was a critical move because it meant no Democrat running against him could expect financial help from the party. He was also endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic National Committee chair and former Vermont governor Howard Dean. Dean said in May 2005 that he considered Sanders an ally who "votes with the Democrats 98% of the time."[123] Then-Senator Barack Obama also campaigned for him in Vermont in March 2006.[124] Sanders entered into an agreement with the Democratic Party, much as he had as a congressman, to be listed in their primary but to decline the nomination should he win, which he did.[125][126]

 
Sanders being sworn in for his second term in 2013 by Joe Biden

In the most expensive political campaign in Vermont's history,[127] Sanders defeated businessman Rich Tarrant by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Many national media outlets projected him as the winner just after the polls closed, before any returns came in.

2012

Sanders was reelected in 2012 with 71% of the vote.[128]

2018

Sanders was reelected in 2018 with 67% of the vote.[129]

Legislation

While a member of Congress, Sanders sponsored 15 concurrent resolutions and 15 Senate resolutions.[130] Of those he co-sponsored, 218 became law.[131][132] While he has consistently advocated for progressive causes, Politico wrote that he has "rarely forged actual legislation or left a significant imprint on it."[133] According to The New York Times, "Big legislation largely eludes Mr. Sanders because his ideas are usually far to the left of the majority of the Senate ... Mr. Sanders has largely found ways to press his agenda through appending small provisions to the larger bills of others."[134] During his time in the Senate, he had lower legislative effectiveness than the average senator, as measured by the number of sponsored bills that passed and successful amendments made.[135] Nevertheless, he has sponsored over 500 amendments to bills,[136] many of which became law. The results of these amendments include a ban on imported goods made by child labor; $100 million in funding for community health centers; $10 million for an outreach program for servicemembers who have posttraumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, depression, panic attacks, and other mental disorders; a public database of senior Department of Defense officials seeking employment with defense contractors; and including autism treatment in the military healthcare program.[137]

In August 2022, Sanders voted for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.[138] He was not satisfied with the bill, calling it only a small step forward.

Finance and monetary policy

In 2008 and 2009, Sanders voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a program to purchase toxic banking assets and provide loans to banks that were in free-fall.[139][140] On February 4, 2009, he sponsored an amendment to ensure that TARP funds would not displace U.S. workers. The amendment passed and was added to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.[137][141] Among his proposed financial reforms is auditing the Federal Reserve, which would reduce its independence in monetary policy deliberations; Federal Reserve officials say that "Audit the Fed" legislation would expose the Federal Reserve to undue political pressure from lawmakers who do not like its decisions.[142][143][144]

Sanders spoke for more than eight hours in his December 2010 filibuster.

On December 10, 2010, Sanders delivered an 8 hour and 34 minute speech against the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010,[d] which proposed extending the Bush-era tax rates. He argued that the legislation would favor the wealthiest Americans. "Enough is enough! ... How many homes can you own?" he asked.[146][147][148] Nevertheless, the bill passed the Senate with a strong majority and was signed into law a week later.[149] In February 2011, Nation Books published the speech as The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class, with authorial proceeds going to Vermont nonprofit charitable organizations.[150]

In 2016, Sanders voted for the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which included proposals for a reformed audit of the Federal Reserve System.[142][143][144]

Foreign policy

On June 12, 2017, U.S. senators agreed to legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran.[151] The bill was opposed only by Sanders and Republican Rand Paul.[152] He supported the sanctions on Russia, but voted against the bill because he believed the sanctions could endanger the Iran nuclear deal.[153]

In 2018, Sanders sponsored a bill and was joined by Senators Chris Murphy (DCT) and Mike Lee (RUT) to invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen,[154] which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties[155] and "millions more suffering from starvation and disease".[156][157] After the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 (which was ordered by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, according to multiple intelligence agencies),[154][155][156][158] his bill attracted bipartisan co-sponsors and support, and the Senate passed it by a vote of 56–41.[159] The bill passed the House in February 2019 by a 247–175 vote and President Trump vetoed it in March, saying: "This resolution is an unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities, endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members, both today and in the future."[160]

Health care

 
Don't Take Our Health Care rally in Columbus, Ohio, June 2017

In mid-December 2009, Sanders successfully added a provision to the Affordable Care Act to fund $11 billion to community health centers, especially those in rural areas. The provision brought together Democrats on the left with Democrats from conservative, rural areas, helping to secure the 60 votes needed for passage.[137] On May 4, 2017, in response to the House vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, he predicted "thousands of Americans would die" from no longer having access to health care.[161] PolitiFact rated his statement "mostly true".[162]

In September 2017, Sanders along with 15 Senate co-sponsors submitted the Medicare for All bill, a single-payer healthcare plan. The bill covers vision and dental care, unlike Medicare. Some Republicans have called the bill "Berniecare" and "the latest Democratic push for socialized medicine and higher taxes." He responded that the Republican Party has no credibility on the issue of health care after voting for legislation that would take health insurance away from 32 million Americans under the Affordable Care Act.[163]

As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, Sanders introduced legislation in 2013 to reauthorize and strengthen the Older Americans Act, which supports Meals on Wheels and other programs for seniors.[164]

Immigration policy

In 2007, Sanders helped kill a bill introducing comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that its guest-worker program would depress wages for American workers.[165] In 2010, he supported the DREAM Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who had been brought to the United States as minors.[165] In 2013, he supported the Gang of Eight's comprehensive immigration reform bill after securing a $1.5 billion youth jobs program provision, which he argued would offset the harm of labor market competition with immigrants.[165]

Income and wealth distribution

 
Sanders introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, April 2017

In April 2017, Sanders introduced a bill that would raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $15 an hour, an increase over an earlier Democratic $12 an hour proposal.[166] On May 9, 2018, he introduced the Workplace Democracy Act, a bill that would expand labor rights by making it easier for workers to join a union, ban right-to-work laws and some anti-union provisions of the Taft–Hartley Act, and outlaw some union-busting tactics. Announcing the legislation, he said, "If we are serious about reducing income and wealth inequality and rebuilding the middle class, we have got to substantially increase the number of union jobs in this country."[167]

Sanders opposed the 2018 United States federal budget proposed by the Trump administration, calling it "a budget for the billionaire class, for Wall Street, for corporate CEOs, and for the wealthiest people in this country ... nothing less than a massive transfer of wealth from working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor to the top 1%."[168]

After the November 2017 revelations from the Paradise Papers and a recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies which says just three people (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett) own more wealth than the bottom half of the U.S. population, Sanders stated that "we must end global oligarchy" and that "we need, in the United States and throughout the world, a tax system which is fair, progressive and transparent."[169]

On September 5, 2018, Sanders partnered with Ro Khanna to introduce the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act, which would require large corporations to pay for the food stamps and Medicaid benefits that their employees receive, relieving the burden on taxpayers.[170][171]

Veterans affairs

On June 9, 2014, Sanders sponsored the Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014 to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs in the wake of the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014. He worked with Senator John McCain, who co-sponsored the bill.[172][173] His bill was incorporated into the House version of the bill, which passed both chambers on July 31, 2014, and was signed into law by President Obama on August 7, 2014.[174]

Supreme Court nominees

On March 17, 2016, Sanders said he would support Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court, though he added, "there are some more progressive judges out there."[175] He opposed Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the court, saying that Gorsuch had "refused to answer legitimate questions".[176] He also objected to Senate Republicans' use of the nuclear option to "choke off debate and ram [Gorsuch's] nomination through the Senate".[176] He voted against Gorsuch's confirmation as an associate justice, and against Trump's nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.[177][178][179] In 2022, Sanders voted to confirm Joe Biden's nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.[180]

Committee assignments

As an independent, Sanders maintains an agreement with the Senate Democratic leadership where he votes with the Democrats on all procedural matters unless the Democratic whip, Dick Durbin, agrees that he need not (a request rarely made or granted). In return he was allowed to keep his seniority and received the committee seats that would have been available to him as a Democrat; in 2013–14 he was chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs (during the Veterans Health Administration scandal).[181][182]

Sanders became the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee in 2015 and the chair in 2021; he previously chaired the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee for two years. Since 2017, he has been chair of the Senate Democratic Outreach Committee.[182] He appointed economics professor Stephanie Kelton, a modern monetary theory scholar, as the chief economic adviser for the committee's Democratic minority and presented a report about helping "rebuild the disappearing middle class" that included proposals to raise the minimum wage, boost infrastructure spending, and increase Social Security payments.[183]

As of 2023, Sanders's committee assignments are as follows:[184][185]

Caucus memberships

Sanders was only the third senator from Vermont to caucus with the Democrats, after Jeffords and Leahy. His caucusing with the Democrats gave them a 51–49 majority in the Senate during the 110th Congress in 2007–08. The Democrats needed 51 seats to control the Senate because Vice President Dick Cheney would likely have broken potential ties in favor of the Republicans.[186] He is a member of the following caucuses:

Approval ratings

Polling conducted in August 2011 by Public Policy Polling found that Sanders's approval rating was 67% and his disapproval rating 28%, making him then the third-most popular U.S. senator.[189] Both the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and the NHLA (National Hispanic Leadership Agenda) have given him 100% voting scores during his tenure in the Senate.[190] In 2015, he was named one of the Top 5 of The Forward 50.[191] In a November 2015 Morning Consult poll, he reached an 83% approval rating among his constituents, making him the most popular U.S. senator.[192] Fox News found him to have the highest net favorability at +28 points of any prominent politician included in its March 2017 poll.[193] He ranked third in 2014 and first in both 2015 and 2016.[192][189][194]

In April 2017, a nationwide Harvard-Harris Poll found that Sanders had the highest favorability rating among all the political figures included in the poll,[195] a standing confirmed by subsequent polling.[196]

2016 presidential campaign

 
Sanders rally in Portland, Oregon, August 2015
 
Sanders speaking at Rutgers University in May 2016

During the 2012 Democratic presidential primaries, Sanders—dissatisfied with President Obama's "attempts to trade Social Security cuts for tax hikes"—reportedly considered running against him in the primaries. Sanders had previously suggested in 2011 that it was "a good idea" for someone to challenge Obama, and "got so close to running a primary challenge ... that Senator Harry Reid had to intervene to stop him."[197] In November 2013, Sanders suggested that Senator Elizabeth Warren could be president and that she might earn his backing if she ran. He added that if no progressive candidate ran, he might feel compelled to do so himself.[198][199] In December 2014, Warren said she was not running.[200]

Sanders announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for president on April 30, 2015.[201][202][203][204] His campaign was officially launched on May 26 in Burlington.[203] In his announcement Sanders said, "I don't believe that the men and women who defended American democracy fought to create a situation where billionaires own the political process", and made this a central idea throughout his campaign.[202][203]

Warren welcomed Sanders's entry into the race, saying, "I'm glad to see him get out there and give his version of what leadership in this country should be", but never endorsed him.[205][206]

Initially considered a long shot, Sanders won 23 primaries and caucuses and around 46% of pledged delegates to Hillary Clinton's 54%. His campaign was noted for its supporters' enthusiasm, as well as for rejecting large donations from corporations, the financial industry, and any associated Super PAC. Some of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails leaked to the public in June and July 2016 showed that the committee leadership had favored Clinton over him and had worked to help Clinton win the nomination.[207]

On July 12, 2016, Sanders formally endorsed Clinton in her unsuccessful general election campaign against Republican Donald Trump, while urging his supporters to continue the "political revolution" his campaign had begun.[208]

Campaign methods

Unlike the other major candidates, Sanders did not pursue funding through a Super PAC or from wealthy donors, instead focusing on small-dollar donations.[209] His presidential campaign raised $1.5 million within 24 hours of his official announcement.[210] At the end of the year, the campaign had raised a total of $73 million from more than one million people, making 2.5 million donations, with an average donation of $27.16.[211] The campaign reached 3.25 million donations by the end of January 2016, raising $20 million in that month alone.[212]

Sanders used social media to help his campaign gain momentum,[213] posting content to online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and answering questions on Reddit. He gained a large grassroots organizational following online. A July 29, 2015, meetup organized online brought 100,000 supporters to more than 3,500 simultaneous events nationwide.[214]

To his surprise, Sanders's June 2015 campaign events drew overflow crowds across the country.[215][216][217] When Clinton and Sanders made public appearances within days of each other in Des Moines, Iowa, he drew larger crowds, even though he had already made many stops around the state and Clinton's visit was her first in 2015.[218] On July 1, 2015, his campaign stop in Madison, Wisconsin, drew the largest crowd of any 2016 presidential candidate to that date, with an estimated turnout of 10,000.[219][220] Over the following weeks, he drew even larger crowds: 11,000 in Phoenix;[221] 15,000 in Seattle;[222] and 28,000 in Portland, Oregon.[223]

Presidential debates

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced in May 2015 that there would be six debates. Critics alleged that the small number of debates and the schedule, with half of the debates on Saturday or Sunday nights, were part of the DNC's deliberate attempt to protect Clinton, who was perceived as the front-runner.[224] In February 2016, both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns agreed in principle to holding four more debates for a total of ten.[225] Clinton dropped out of the tenth debate, scheduled to take place just before the California primary, citing a need to devote her time to making direct contact with California voters and preparing for the general election.[226] Sanders expressed disappointment that Clinton canceled the debate before what he believed would be "the largest and most important primary in the presidential nominating process."[227]

Polls and news coverage

Some Sanders supporters raised concerns that publications such as The New York Times minimized coverage of the Sanders campaign in favor of other candidates, especially Trump and Clinton. The Times' ombudsman reviewed her paper's coverage of the Sanders campaign and found that as of September 2015 the Times "hasn't always taken it very seriously. The tone of some stories is regrettably dismissive, even mocking at times. Some of that is focused on the candidate's age, appearance and style, rather than what he has to say." She also found that the Times's coverage of Sanders's campaign was much scanter than its coverage of Trump's, though Trump's was also initially considered a long shot at that time, with 63 articles covering the Trump campaign and 14 covering Sanders's.[228][229] A December 2015 report found that the three major networks—CBS, NBC, and ABC—had spent 234 minutes reporting on Trump and 10 minutes on Sanders, despite their similar polling results. The report noted that ABC World News Tonight had spent 81 minutes on Trump and less than one minute on Sanders during 2015.[230]

A study of media coverage in the 2016 election concluded that while Sanders received less coverage than his rival Hillary Clinton, the amount of coverage of Sanders during the election was largely consistent with his polling performance, except during 2015 when Sanders received coverage that far exceeded his standing in the polls.[231] Studies concluded that the tone of media coverage of Sanders was more favorable than that of any other candidate, whereas his main opponent in the democratic primary, Hillary Clinton, received the most negative coverage of any candidate.[232][231] All 2016 candidates received vastly less media coverage than Donald Trump, and the Democratic primary received substantially less coverage than the Republican primary.[231][232][233]

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! noted that on March 15, Super Tuesday III, the speeches of Trump, Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz were broadcast in full. Sanders was in Phoenix, Arizona, on that date, speaking to a rally larger than any of the others, yet his speech was not mentioned, let alone broadcast.[234] However, political scientist Rachel Bitecofer wrote in her 2018 book about the 2016 election that the Democratic primary was effectively over in terms of delegate count by mid-March 2016, but that the media promoted the narrative that the contest between Sanders and Clinton was "heating up" at that time.[233]

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted in May 2016 found Clinton and Trump (by then the presumptive Republican nominee) in a "dead heat", but the same poll found that if Sanders were the Democratic nominee, 53% of voters would support him to 39% for Trump.[235] Clinton and Trump were the least popular likely candidates ever polled, while Sanders received a 43% positive, 36% negative rating.[236] Polls showed that Democratic voters older than 50 preferred Clinton by a large margin but that those under 50 overwhelmingly favored Sanders.[237] A 2017 analysis in Newsweek found that 12% of those who voted for Sanders in the Democratic primary voted for Trump in the general election,[238] a lower proportion than that of Clinton supporters in 2008 who voted for John McCain.[239][240]

DNC email leak

In July 2016, a leak of the Democratic National Committee's emails appeared to show DNC officials favoring Clinton over Sanders. Staff repeatedly discussed making his irreligious tendencies a potential campaign issue in southern states and questioned his party loyalty. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz called his campaign manager "an ass" and "a damn liar".[241] Speaking with Jake Tapper on CNN, Sanders responded to the leak, saying, "it is an outrage and sad that you would have people in important positions in the DNC trying to undermine my campaign. It goes without saying: the function of the DNC is to represent all of the candidates—to be fair and even-minded. But again, we discussed this many, many months ago, on this show, so what is revealed now is not a shock to me."[242]

Endorsement of Hillary Clinton

 
Sanders campaigning for Hillary Clinton at Nashua Community College in October 2016

After the final primary election, Clinton became the presumptive Democratic nominee.[243] On July 12, Sanders formally endorsed Clinton.[208] He said he would continue to work with the Democratic National Convention organizers to implement progressive positions. Sanders refused to formally concede before the convention.[244] He spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 25, during which he gave Clinton his full support. Some of his supporters attempted to protest Clinton's nomination and booed when Sanders called for party unity. He responded, "Our job is to do two things: to defeat Donald Trump and to elect Hillary Clinton ... It is easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face if we are living under a Trump presidency."[245]

On November 8, in the general election, Sanders received almost 6% of the vote in Vermont, even though he was no longer a candidate. This was the highest share of a statewide presidential vote for a write-in draft campaign in American history.[246] He also received more votes in Vermont than Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, and Jill Stein, the Green candidate, combined.[247] It was possible to vote for Sanders as a write-in candidate in 12 states,[248] and exact totals of write-in votes for him were published in three of them: California,[249] New Hampshire,[250] and Vermont.[247] In those three states, he received 111,850 write-in votes, about 15% of the write-in votes nationwide, and less than 1% of total nationwide vote.[248]

Post-election activities

In November 2016, Sanders's book Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In was released; upon its release, it was number three on The New York Times Best Seller list.[251] The audiobook later received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album.[252] In February 2017, he began webcasting The Bernie Sanders Show on Facebook live streaming. As of April 2, 2017, guests had included William Barber, Josh Fox, Jane Mayer, and Bill Nye.[253][254] Polls taken in 2017 found him to be the most popular politician in the United States.[195][255]

In February 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections concluded that Russians had communicated false information during the primary campaigns to help Sanders and Stein and harm Clinton.[256] Sanders rejected the investigation's conclusion, saying that he had seen no evidence that Russians had helped his campaign.[257] Furthermore, he blamed the Clinton campaign for not doing more to prevent Russian interference.[257] He later said that his campaign had taken action to prevent Russian meddling in the election and that a campaign staffer had alerted the Clinton campaign.[258] Politico noted that a Sanders campaign volunteer contacted a political action committee (PAC) that supported the Clinton campaign to report suspicious activities but that the Sanders campaign did not contact the Clinton campaign as such.[258]

In November 2018, the Sanders Institute and Yanis Varoufakis, co-founder of DiEM25, launched Progressive International, an international organization uniting progressive activists and organizations "to mobilize people around the world to transform the global order and the institutions that shape it."[259][260][261]

Influence on the Democratic Party

Analysts have suggested that Sanders's campaign shifted both the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party politically leftward. A new political organization, Brand New Congress, was formed in April 2016 by former campaign staffers. It works to elect congressional representatives with platforms in line with Sanders.[262] In August 2016, he formed Our Revolution, a political organization dedicated to educating voters about issues, getting people involved in the political process, and electing progressive candidates for local, state, and national office.[263][264] Speaking on the PBS Newshour about the upcoming 2018 elections and discussing the main principles of the two major parties, Susan Page described the Republican Party as "Trump's party" and the Democratic Party as "Bernie Sanders's party", saying that "Sanders and his more progressive stance has really taken hold."[265] Noting the increasing acceptance of his national single-payer health-care program, his $15-an-hour minimum wage stance, free college tuition and many of the other campaign platform issues he introduced,[266][267] an April 2018 opinion article in The Week suggested, "Quietly but steadily, the Democratic Party is admitting that Sanders was right."[268] In July 2016, a Slate article called the Democratic platform draft "a monument to his campaign", noting not only his call for a $15 minimum wage, but other campaign issues, such as Social Security expansion, a carbon tax, Wall Street reform, opposition to the death penalty, and a "reasoned pathway for future legalization" of marijuana.[269]

Sanders's presidential campaigns led to a resurgence of interest in social democracy and democratic socialism among millennials.[270]

2020 presidential campaign

On February 19, 2019, Sanders announced that he would seek the Democratic Party's 2020 nomination for president.[271] He had declined the Vermont Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate in 2006, 2012, and 2018, which caused an unsuccessful legal challenge to his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Along with his 2019 campaign announcement, he said he would abide by a new Democratic Party rule for presidential candidates and that he would affirm his membership in that party.[272] On March 5, 2019, he signed a formal statement, known as a "loyalty pledge", that he is a member of the Democratic Party and will serve as a Democrat if elected. News reports noted that the day before, he had signed paperwork to run as an independent for reelection to his Senate seat in 2024.[273]

Sanders's campaign manager was Faiz Shakir. The campaign's national co-chairs were Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen, Representative Ro Khanna, Our Revolution President Nina Turner, and San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.[274][275]

Campaign methods

Given the high national profile that Sanders maintained since his 2016 campaign, NPR described him as "no longer an underdog" when he announced his 2020 campaign.[276] Using the large email list it built during the 2016 campaign, the 2020 campaign recruited more than one million volunteers within weeks of its launch. It enlisted several former NowThis News employees to produce professional videos for wide social media distribution, live-streamed various forums to its millions of social media followers, and launched a podcast and smartphone app for grassroots organizing.[277]

Fundraising

Sanders's 2020 campaign employed many of the same methods as its 2016 counterpart, eschewing a Super PAC and relying predominantly on small-dollar contributions. According to Federal Election Commission filings, the Sanders campaign had raised the most money in the 2020 Democratic field as of June 2019, including money left over from his 2018 Senate and 2016 presidential races.[278][279][280] In September 2019, the Sanders campaign became the fastest in U.S. history to reach one million donors.[281] On October 1, 2019, the campaign announced it had raised $25.3 million in the year's third quarter, with an average donation of $18. It was the largest quarterly sum raised by any Democratic candidate.[282][283] The campaign raised $34.5 million during the fourth quarter of 2019.[284]

Polls and news coverage

 
Sanders campaigning for president in San Jose, California, March 2020

Sanders steadily polled between 15 and 20% on most national surveys between May and September 2019, according to the RealClearPolitics average. This placed him in a decisive second-place behind Joe Biden until Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris caught up in July.[285] From mid-February 2020 to the start of March, Sanders polled in first place in the Democratic primary ahead of Joe Biden[286][287] and was described by the press as the party's presidential front-runner.[288][289][290][291]

According to a RealClearPolitics analysis, Sanders received the third-most mentions on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC between January and August 2019, trailing only Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Biden, however, received twice as many mentions as Sanders and Harris. Mentions of Sanders on ABC World News Tonight found him in second place, though also trailing Biden by a large margin. Online mentions "reflect a slightly more balanced picture", with both Sanders and Elizabeth Warren running "neck-and-neck" with Biden.[292]

Forums and other appearances

On April 6, 2019, Sanders participated in a Fox News town hall that attracted more than 2.55 million viewers.[293][294] His decision to appear on Fox was controversial given the Democratic National Committee's decision not to allow Fox to host any of its debates.[295][296] His appearance saw an increase of Fox News viewers by 24% overall and 40% in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic, surpassing the ratings of all other Democratic presidential candidate town halls that year. As of September 2019, the town hall had received more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.[297]

On August 6, 2019, Sanders appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Some praised Rogan for "hosting a pragmatic discussion" while others "seemed rather stunned by Sanders's decision to appear on the show at all." After the podcast, Rogan became a top-trending Twitter topic.[298] After interviewing him, Rogan said, "I am not right-wing ... I've interviewed right-wing people. I am 100% left-wing ... Bernie Sanders made a ton of sense to me and I would 100% vote for him."[299] As of October 2019, the podcast had received more than ten million views on YouTube.[300]

Presidential debates

In December 2018, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the preliminary schedule for 12 official DNC-sanctioned debates, set to begin in June 2019, with six in 2019 and the remaining six during the first four months of 2020. During the July and September debates, commentators described Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as having a "non-aggression pact", staking out similar progressive positions in contrast to the more conservative candidates.[301][302] In the October 15 debate, his first appearance since his heart attack, debate coach Todd Graham gave Sanders's performance an A, his highest rating of all the candidates.[303]

CNN hosted the first 2020 debate in January with six candidates remaining. Co-moderator Abby Phillip questioned Sanders and Warren about an allegation Warren had made that he had privately told her that a woman could not defeat Donald Trump. Phillip asked Sanders, "Senator Sanders, CNN reported yesterday, and Senator Warren confirmed in a statement, that in 2018 you told her that you did not believe that a woman could win the election. Why did you say that?" Ignoring Sanders's strong denial, Phillip asked Warren, "What did you think when Bernie Sanders told you that a woman couldn't become president?" In an interview after the debate, Sanders called it ludicrous to believe that he would doubt a woman's ability to win the presidency and noted that a woman already had won the national popular vote, saying, "After all, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016."[304]

Suspension of campaign

Sanders announced that he was suspending his campaign on April 8, 2020.[305][306][307] He stated that he would remain on the ballot in the remaining states and continue to accumulate delegates with the goal of influencing the Democratic Party's platform.[308][305][309] On April 14 Sanders endorsed Biden. Biden responded, "I think that your endorsement means a great deal. It means a great deal to me. I think people are going to be surprised that we are apart on some issues but we're awfully close on a whole bunch of others. I'm going to need you—not just to win the campaign, but to govern."[310]

Political positions

A self-described "democratic socialist",[311] Sanders is a progressive who admires the Nordic model of social democracy and has been a proponent of workplace democracy via union democracy and worker cooperatives.[312] He is a strong critic of contemporary neoliberal capitalism, which he calls "uber-capitalism", blaming it for such societal ills as declining life expectancy and rising diseases of despair.[313][314][315] He advocates universal, single-payer healthcare, paid parental leave, and tuition-free tertiary education.[316] He supports lowering the cost of drugs by reforming patent laws to allow cheaper generic versions to be sold in the U.S.[317] He supported the Affordable Care Act, though he said it did not go far enough.[citation needed] In November 2015, he gave a speech at Georgetown University about his view of democratic socialism, including its place in the policies of presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.[318][319] Defining what "democratic socialism" means to him, Sanders said: "I don't believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down. I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America, companies that create jobs here, rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage labor abroad."[320]

Based on his positions and votes throughout his career, many commentators consider his political platform primarily focused on tax-funded social benefits and not on social ownership of the means of production.[321][322] Some socialists have described Sanders as a market socialist or reformist socialist,[323][324] while others have called him a reformist social democrat.[325][326] Some political commentators have described Sanders's political philosophy as "welfarism"[327] or "social democracy".[328] Others describe his philosophy as extending from such existing liberal programs in the U.S. as Social Security and Medicare,[329][330][e] and more consistent with Nordic social democracy.[331][330][332]

Bhaskar Sunkara has characterized Sanders' politics as "class struggle social democracy", arguing that while postwar social democracy operated as a compromise that instituted tripartite arrangements between business, labor and government to dampen class conflict, Sanders sees social democratic demands as a means to sharpening class confrontation and raising class consciousness.[333] His views have been echoed by George Eaton, arguing that Sunkara's phrase "captures the nuances of Sanders' politics in a way that a socialist / social democrat binary does not" and asserting that if he was elected president it would represent "the triumph of a politics that is neither wholly socialist, nor social democratic, but a new fusion of both".[334]

Climate change

Sanders views global warming as a serious problem,[335] and advocates bold action to reverse its effects. He calls for substantial investment in infrastructure, with energy efficiency, sustainability, and job creation as prominent goals.[336][337] He considers climate change the greatest threat to national security.[338][335] He said that family planning can help fight climate change.[339] He opposed the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on the grounds that, like the Keystone XL Pipeline, it "will have a significant impact on our climate."[340] In 2019, he announced his support for Green New Deal legislation,[341] and joined Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Earl Blumenauer in proposing legislation that would declare climate change a national and international emergency.[342]

Economic issues

Sanders focuses on economic issues such as income and wealth inequality,[311][343] poverty,[344] raising the minimum wage,[166] universal healthcare,[316] cancelling all student debt,[345] making public colleges and universities tuition-free by taxing financial transactions,[346] and expanding Social Security benefits by eliminating the cap on the payroll tax on all incomes above $250,000.[347][348] He has become a prominent supporter of laws requiring companies to give their workers parental leave, sick leave, and vacation time, noting that such laws have been adopted by nearly all other developed countries.[349] He also supports legislation that would make it easier for workers to join or form a trade union.[350][351] He was against the Troubled Asset Relief Program,[352] and has called for comprehensive financial reforms,[353] such as breaking up "too big to fail" financial institutions, restoring Glass–Steagall legislation, reforming the Federal Reserve Bank, and allowing the Post Office to offer basic financial services in economically marginalized communities.[354][355][356][357]

Believing greater emphasis is needed on labor rights and environmental concerns when negotiating international trade agreements, Sanders voted against and has long spoken against NAFTA, CAFTA, and PNTR with China. He has called them a "disaster for the American worker", saying that they have resulted in American corporations moving abroad. He also opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which he says was "written by corporate America and the pharmaceutical industry and Wall Street."[358][359] On May 1, 2019, he tweeted: "Since the China trade deal I voted against, America has lost over three million manufacturing jobs. It's wrong to pretend that China isn't one of our major economic competitors."[360]

Sanders also strongly opposes outsourcing American jobs.[361] During discussions of the United States Innovation and Competition Act, which was to be used to fund the manufacture of semiconductors amid a shortage, he proposed a measure to ensure the companies the bill funded could not outsource their jobs. The proposed measure would also block the companies from forbidding their employees to unionize. Sanders's proposal was voted down by most Democrats and all Republicans in the Senate.[362][363] Ahead of the 2022 midterms, Sanders said he wants the Democratic Party to focus more on supporting unionization: "I think we should move to a system where, if 50% of the workers in a bargaining unit plus one vote to form a union, they have a union. End of discussion."[364]

Foreign relations

 
Sanders steps out of a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter after arriving in Afghanistan in 2011

Sanders supports reducing military spending while pursuing more diplomacy and international cooperation. He opposed funding Nicaraguan rebels, known as contras, in the CIA's covert war against Nicaragua's leftist government.[365] He opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq and has criticized a number of policies instituted during the War on Terror, particularly that of mass surveillance and the USA Patriot Act.[366][367][368][369] He criticized Israel's actions during the 2014 Gaza war[370] and U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[371] On November 15, 2015, in response to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)'s attacks in Paris, he cautioned against Islamophobia and said, "We gotta be tough, not stupid" in the war against ISIL, adding that the U.S. should continue to welcome Syrian refugees.[372] He criticized the January 2020 drone assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, calling it a dangerous escalation of tensions that could lead to an expensive war.[373]

Sanders supports Palestinian rights and has criticized Israel on several occasions. In 2020, he called the American Israel Public Affairs Committee a platform for bigotry and said he would not attend its conference.[374] He condemned Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying, "It would dramatically undermine the prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, and severely, perhaps irreparably, damage the United States' ability to broker that peace."[375][376]

Addressing Westminster College in a September 2017 speech, Sanders laid out a foreign policy plan for greater international collaboration, adherence to U.S.-led international agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal framework, and promoting human rights and democratic ideals. He emphasized the consequences associated with global economic inequality and climate change, and urged reining in the use of U.S. military power, saying it "must always be a last resort". He also criticized U.S. support for "murderous regimes" during the Cold War, such as those in Iran, Chile and El Salvador, and said that those actions continue to make the U.S. less safe.[377][378] He also spoke critically of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and the way President Trump has handled the crisis.[379] He does not consider Turkey a U.S. ally, and condemned the Turkish military offensive against U.S.-aligned Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.[380]

Gun laws

Sanders supports closing the "gun show loophole", banning assault weapons, and passing and enforcing universal federal background checks for gun purchases.[381][382][383] In 1990, he was supported by the National Rifle Association in his bid to become a U.S. Representative in exchange for opposing both the competing campaign of Peter Smith, who had reversed his stance on firearm restrictions, and waiting periods for handgun purchases.[384] In 1993, while a U.S. Representative, he voted against the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (which established background checks and wait periods), and in 2005 voted for legislation that gave gun manufacturers legal immunity against claims of negligence, but as of 2016 he has since said that he would support repealing that law.[111] In 1996, he voted against additional funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research on issues related to firearms, but in 2016, he called for an increase in CDC funding for the study of gun violence.[111]

Social issues

On social issues, Sanders has long taken liberal stances.[385] He considers himself a feminist,[386] is pro-choice on abortion, and opposes defunding Planned Parenthood.[387] He has long advocated for LGBT rights; in 2009, he supported legalizing same-sex marriage in Vermont.[388] Sanders has denounced institutional racism and called for criminal justice reform to reduce the number of people in prison,[389] advocates a crackdown on police brutality, and supports abolishing private, for-profit prisons[390][391] and the death penalty.[392] He supports Black Lives Matter.[393] He also supports legalizing marijuana at the federal level.[394] He has advocated for greater democratic participation by citizens, campaign finance reform, and a constitutional amendment or judicial decision that would overturn Citizens United v. FEC.[395][396][397]

Trump administration

Sanders criticized President Trump for appointing multiple billionaires to his cabinet.[398] He criticized Trump's rolling back President Obama's Clean Power Plan, noting the scientifically reported effect on climate change of human activity and citing Trump's calling those reports a hoax.[399] He called for caution on the Syrian Civil War, saying, "It's easier to get into a war than out of one."[400][better source needed] In 2017, he promised to defeat "Trump and Trumpism and the Republican right-wing ideology".[401]

Sanders gave an online reply to Trump's January 2018 State of the Union address in which he called Trump "compulsively dishonest" and criticized him for initiating "a looming immigration crisis" by ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He voiced concern about Trump's failure to mention the finding that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election and "will likely interfere in the 2018 midterms we will be holding ... Unless you have a very special relationship with Mr. Putin."[402]

On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters attacked the United States Capitol. Sanders commented: "[Trump] has made it clear that he will do anything to remain in power – including insurrection and inciting violence [and he] will go down in history as the worst and most dangerous president in history."[403]

Sanders voted to convict Trump on both articles of his first impeachment trial in 2020 (for pressuring a foreign leader to investigate Joe Biden), and again on the sole article of his second impeachment trial in 2021 (for inciting the Capitol attack).[404]

Biden administration

Sanders influenced the environmental policy goals of the Biden administration as described before Biden's nomination. Biden's policy team took some but not all of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Forces' climate recommendations.[405][needs update]

After Biden was elected president, Sanders became the subject of speculation over a potential appointment as Labor Secretary, which was supported by several progressive groups, such as the Sunrise Movement.[406] For his part, Sanders said that he would accept Biden's nomination if it was offered, but Boston mayor Marty Walsh was chosen for the position instead. When announcing Walsh's nomination, Biden confirmed that he had discussed the position with Sanders, but the two agreed that Sanders's resignation from the Senate and the ensuing special election would have put the Democrats' slim Senate majority at risk.[407]

On February 23, 2021, Sanders became the first senator in the Democratic caucus to oppose one of Biden's cabinet picks when he voted against Tom Vilsack's confirmation as Agriculture Secretary, citing concerns about Vilsack's past work as a lobbyist and ties to large corporations.[408]

Sanders strongly supported Senate Democrats' decision to use budget reconciliation, a procedure used to avoid filibusters, to pass the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, despite having criticized Republicans' use of reconciliation to pass the 2017 tax cuts.[409] The bill passed the Senate by a 50–49 vote and was signed into law by Biden on March 11, 2021.[410]

Sanders has continued to have a strong influence on the Biden administration. When it was noted that he had become a key voice in Biden's administration, he replied, "As somebody who wrote a book called Outsider in the House, yes, it is a strange experience to be having that kind of influence that we have now." Their relationship has lasted over 30 years and Sanders has said it is based on respect and trust: "We have had a good relationship. He wants to be a champion of working families, and I admire that and respect that."[411]

Before the 2022 midterm election, Sanders said he regarded it as deciding the fate of democracy, abortion, and climate change, calling it "the most consequential midterm election" of modern U.S. history. He expressed a fear that the Democratic Party had "not done a good enough job" of getting its message out "to young people and working-class people."[412] After the election, Sanders said it "went a hell of a lot better than we had anticipated" and that "discussion about the economy" had "a very strong impact" that helped Democrats. He also pointed to John Fetterman's successful campaign as a model for future Democratic efforts, saying that Fetterman had "strongly identified with the working class" during the Pennsylvania election.[413]

Party affiliations

Born into a Democratic-voting family, Sanders was first introduced to political activism when his brother Larry joined the Young Democrats of America and campaigned for Adlai Stevenson II in 1956.[414] Sanders joined Vermont's Liberty Union Party in 1971 and was a candidate for several offices, never coming close to winning election. He became party chairman,[415] but quit in 1977 to become an independent.[416] In 1980, he served as an elector for the Socialist Workers Party.[417][418] In 1981, Sanders ran as an independent for mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and defeated the Democratic incumbent; he was reelected three times.[69] Although an independent, he endorsed Democratic presidential candidates Walter Mondale in 1984 and Jesse Jackson in 1988. His endorsement of Mondale was lukewarm (telling reporters that "if you go around saying that Mondale would be a great president, you would be a liar and a hypocrite"), but he supported Jackson enthusiastically.[419] The Washington Post reported that the Jackson campaign helped inspire Sanders to work more closely with the Democratic Party.[419][1]

Sanders attended the 1983 conference of the Socialist Party USA where he gave a speech.[420]

Sanders first ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1988 and for the U.S. Senate in 2006, each time adopting a strategy of winning the Democratic Party primary, thereby eliminating Democratic challengers, and then running as an independent in the general election.[421] He continued this strategy through his reelection in the 2018 United States Senate election in Vermont.[422] Throughout his tenure in Congress, he has been listed as an independent. He caucused with Democrats in the House[10] while refusing to join the party,[89] and continues to caucus with Democrats in the Senate.[186] Some conservative southern House Democrats initially barred him from the caucus as they believed that allowing a self-described socialist to join would harm their electoral prospects.[1] He soon came to work constructively with Democrats, voting with the party over 90% of the time during his tenure in Congress.[1]

Starting with his 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders's announcements suggested that not only was he running as a Democrat, but that he would run as a Democrat in future elections.[423][424][425] When challenged by Clinton about his party commitment, he said, "Of course I am a Democrat and running for the Democratic nomination."[426] Since he remained a senator elected as an independent, his U.S. Senate website and press materials continued to refer to him as an independent during the campaign and upon his return to the Senate.[427][428] In October 2017, Sanders said he would run for reelection as an independent in 2018 despite pressure to run as a Democrat.[429] His party status became ambiguous again in March 2019 when he signed a formal "loyalty pledge" to the Democratic Party stating that he was a member of the party and would serve as a Democrat if elected president. He signed the pledge the day after he signed paperwork to run as an independent for reelection to the Senate in 2024.[273]

After Trump's victory in the 2016 elections, Sanders suggested the Democratic Party undergo a series of reforms and that it "break loose from its corporate establishment ties and, once again, become a grass-roots party of working people, the elderly and the poor."[430] He drew parallels between his campaign and that of the Labour Party in the 2017 UK general election.[431][432] He wrote in The New York Times that "the British elections should be a lesson for the Democratic Party" and urged the Democrats to stop holding on to an "overly cautious, centrist ideology", arguing that "momentum shifted to Labour after it released a very progressive manifesto that generated much enthusiasm among young people and workers."[433][434] He had earlier praised Jeremy Corbyn's stance on class issues.[435] Sanders is one of three independents in the Senate, the others being Angus King, who also caucuses with the Democrats, and Kyrsten Sinema.[436]

Personal life

 
Sanders with his wife Jane O'Meara in Des Moines, Iowa, January 2016

In 1963, Sanders and Deborah Shiling Messing, whom he met in college, volunteered for several months on the Israeli kibbutz Sha'ar HaAmakim. They married in 1964 and bought a summer home in Vermont; they had no children and divorced in 1966.[21][437][438][10] His son (and only biological child), Levi Sanders, was born in 1969 to then-girlfriend Susan Campbell Mott.[19]

On May 28, 1988, Sanders married Jane O'Meara Driscoll (née Mary Jane O'Meara), who later became president of Burlington College, in Burlington, Vermont.[439] The day after their wedding, the couple visited the Soviet Union as part of an official delegation in his capacity as mayor.[440] They own a row house in Capitol Hill, a house in Burlington's New North End neighborhood, and a lakefront summer home in North Hero.[441][442][443][444] He considers Jane's three children—Dave Driscoll (born 1975), Carina Driscoll (born 1974), and Heather Titus (née Driscoll; 1971)—to be his own.[21][18]

Sanders's elder brother, Larry, lives in England;[445] he was a Green Party county councillor, representing the East Oxford division on Oxfordshire County Council, until he retired from the council in 2013.[446][447] Larry ran as a Green Party candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon in the 2015 British general election and came in fifth.[448][449] Bernie Sanders told CNN, "I owe my brother an enormous amount. It was my brother who actually introduced me to a lot of my ideas."[449]

Health

On October 1, 2019, Sanders was hospitalized after experiencing chest pains at a campaign event in Las Vegas. His campaign announced the next day that a blockage had been found in one coronary artery and two stents inserted.[450] Scheduled campaign events and appearances were canceled until further notice.[451] Two days later his campaign released a statement that he had been diagnosed with a heart attack. He was released from the hospital the same day.[450] The statement included the following from Sanders's doctors:[452]

After presenting to an outside facility with chest pain, Sen. Sanders was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction. He was immediately transferred to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center. The senator was stable upon arrival and taken immediately to the cardiac catheterization laboratory, at which time two stents were placed in a blocked coronary artery in a timely fashion. All other arteries were normal. His hospital course was uneventful with good expected progress. He was discharged with instructions to follow up with his personal physician.

A few days after returning home, Sanders addressed media outside his home and said he had experienced fatigue and chest discomfort for a month or two before the incident; he expressed regret for not seeking medical assessment sooner: "I was dumb."[453]

Sanders made his first national appearance after his heart attack on October 15 at the Democratic debate, at which he said, "I'm healthy, I'm feeling great." When asked how he would reassure voters about his health and ability to take on the duties of the presidency, he said, "We are going to be mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country. That is how I think I can reassure the American people." It was noted that he was "lively and sharp at the debate."[454]

In December 2019, three months after the heart attack, Sanders released letters from three physicians, Attending Physician of Congress Brian P. Monahan and two cardiologists, who declared Sanders healthy and recovered from his heart condition.[455]

Honors and awards

On December 4, 2015, Sanders won Time's 2015 Person of the Year readers' poll with 10.2% of the vote[456][457] but did not receive the editorial board's award. On March 20, 2016, he was given an honorary Coast Salish name, dxʷshudičup,[f] by Deborah Parker in Seattle to honor his focus on Native American issues during his presidential campaign.[458]

On May 30, 2017, Sanders received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Brooklyn College.[459]

Religion, heritage, and values

As Sanders described his upbringing as an American Jew in a 2016 speech: his father generally attended synagogue only on Yom Kippur; he attended public schools while his mother "chafed" at his yeshiva Sunday schooling at a Hebrew school; and their religious observances were mostly limited to Passover seders with their neighbors. Larry Sanders said of their parents, "They were very pleased to be Jews, but didn't have a strong belief in God."[460] Bernie had a bar mitzvah[461] at the historic Kingsway Jewish Center in Midwood, Brooklyn, where he grew up.[460]

In 1963, in cooperation with the Labor Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair, Sanders and his first wife volunteered at Sha'ar HaAmakim, a kibbutz in northern Israel.[462][463][464][11] His motivation for the trip was as much socialistic as it was Zionistic.[460]

As mayor of Burlington, Sanders allowed a Chabad public menorah to be placed at city hall, an action the ACLU contested. He publicly inaugurated the Hanukkah menorah and performed the Jewish religious ritual of blessing Hanukkah candles.[460] His early and strong support played a significant role in the now widespread public menorah celebrations around the globe.[465][466][467][468] When asked about his Jewish heritage, Sanders has said that he is "proud to be Jewish."[11]

Sanders rarely speaks about religion.[461] He describes himself as "not particularly religious"[11] and "not actively involved" with organized religion.[461] A press package issued by his office states his religion as Jewish.[469] He has said he believes in God, but not necessarily in a traditional way: "I think everyone believes in God in their own ways", he said. "To me, it means that all of us are connected, all of life is connected, and that we are all tied together."[461][470] In October 2015, on the late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel asked him, "You say you are culturally Jewish and you don't feel religious; do you believe in God and do you think that's important to the people of the United States?" Sanders replied:[471]

I am who I am, and what I believe in and what my spirituality is about is that we're all in this together. That I think it is not a good thing to believe as human beings we can turn our backs on the suffering of other people ... and this is not Judaism, this is what Pope Francis is talking about, that we can't just worship billionaires and the making of more and more money. Life is more than that.

In 2016, he disclosed that he had "very strong religious and spiritual feelings", adding, "My spirituality is that we are all in this together and that when children go hungry, when veterans sleep out on the street, it impacts me."[472]

Sanders does not regularly attend synagogue, and he does not refrain from working on Rosh Hashanah, as observant Jews do. He has attended yahrzeit observances in memory of the deceased, for the father of a friend, and in 2015 attended a Tashlikh, an atonement ceremony, with the mayor of Lynchburg on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah.[460] According to Richard Sugarman, his Jewish identity is "certainly more ethnic and cultural than religious."[473] His wife is Roman Catholic, and he has often expressed admiration for Pope Francis, saying that "the leader of the Catholic Church is raising profound issues. It is important that we listen to what he has said." He has said he feels very close to Francis's economic teachings, describing him as "incredibly smart and brave".[9][474][475] In April 2016, he accepted an invitation from Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, an aide close to Francis, to speak at a Vatican conference on economic and environmental issues. While at the Vatican, he met briefly with Francis.[476][477]

In popular culture

In December 1987, during his tenure as mayor of Burlington, Sanders recorded a folk album, We Shall Overcome, with 30 Vermont musicians. As he was not a skilled singer, he performed his vocals in a talking blues style.[478][479]

Internet culture

Owing to his two high-profile campaigns in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries, Sanders and his campaigns have generated many Internet memes and other online content. The Facebook group Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash, where users can submit memes focused around Sanders, received significant attention in the 2016 primary season due to the at-the-time unique idea of a meme community focused entirely on a politician.[480][481] During the 2020 primary season, a still from a fundraising video in which Sanders tells the viewers "I am once again asking for your financial support" went viral online, with numerous edits made of the frame.[482][483] The day before Super Tuesday 2020, a video of the Twitch streamer Neekolul wearing a Bernie 2020 shirt and lip-syncing the song "Oki Doki Boomer" also went viral.[484] In 2021, a frame from the inauguration of Joe Biden showing Sanders seated in a folding chair wearing patterned mittens and a jacket reminiscent of the one in the "I am once again asking" meme went viral, with the image captioned or edited into other images, most commonly popular movie scenes.[485][486]

In film and television

Sanders appeared in a cameo role in the 1988 comedy-drama film Sweet Hearts Dance, playing a man who distributes candy to young trick-or-treaters.[487] In 1999, he acted in the film My X-Girlfriend's Wedding Reception, playing Rabbi Manny Shevitz. In this role he mourned the Brooklyn Dodgers' move to Los Angeles, reflecting Sanders's own upbringing in Brooklyn.[488] On February 6, 2016, he was a guest star alongside Larry David on Saturday Night Live, playing a Polish immigrant on a steamship that was sinking near the Statue of Liberty.[489]

In the DC Extended Universe film Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), one of the reasons Roman Sionis wants Harley Quinn dead is that she "voted for Bernie".[490]

Publications

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Caucus member 1995–present
  2. ^ Affiliated non-member
  3. ^ Excludes three stepchildren, whom he considers to be his own
  4. ^ A long speech such as this is commonly known as a filibuster, but because it did not block action, it was not technically a filibuster under Senate rules.[145]
  5. ^ Thomas Frank's comments are mentioned in the following book review: Lozada, Carlos (March 11, 2016). "The liberal war over the Obama legacy has already begun". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  6. ^ IPA: [ˌduːh.s.ˈhwuː.diː.ˌtʃuːp], lit. 'the one lighting the fires for change and unity' in Lushootseed

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bernie, sanders, confused, with, bernie, saunders, senator, sanders, redirects, here, other, uses, senator, sanders, disambiguation, bernard, sanders, born, september, 1941, american, politician, serving, senior, united, states, senator, from, vermont, seat, h. Not to be confused with Bernie Saunders Senator Sanders redirects here For other uses see Senator Sanders disambiguation Bernard Sanders born September 8 1941 is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Vermont a seat he has held since 2007 He was the U S representative for the state s at large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 Sanders is the longest serving independent in U S congressional history He has a close relationship with the Democratic Party having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career 1 A self described democratic socialist he is often seen as a leader of the progressive movement in the United States Sanders unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States in 2016 and 2020 finishing in second place in both campaigns Before his election to Congress he was mayor of Burlington Vermont Bernie SandersSanders in March 2020United States Senatorfrom VermontIncumbentAssumed office January 3 2007Serving with Peter WelchPreceded byJim JeffordsChair of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions CommitteeIncumbentAssumed office January 3 2023Preceded byPatty MurrayChair of the Senate Budget CommitteeIn office February 3 2021 January 3 2023Preceded byMike EnziSucceeded bySheldon WhitehouseChair of the Senate Veterans Affairs CommitteeIn office January 3 2013 January 3 2015Preceded byPatty MurraySucceeded byJohnny IsaksonMember of the U S House of Representatives from Vermont s at large districtIn office January 3 1991 January 3 2007Preceded byPeter Plympton SmithSucceeded byPeter Welch37th Mayor of BurlingtonIn office April 6 1981 April 4 1989Preceded byGordon PaquetteSucceeded byPeter ClavellePersonal detailsBornBernard Sanders 1941 09 08 September 8 1941 age 81 New York City U S Political partyIndependent 1978 present Other politicalaffiliationsDemocratic a 2015 2016 2019 2020 Vermont Progressive b 1981 present Liberty Union 1970 1977 SpousesDeborah Shiling m 1964 div 1966 wbr Jane O Meara m 1988 wbr Children1 c RelativesLarry Sanders brother Larry David cousin EducationBrooklyn CollegeUniversity of Chicago BA OccupationPoliticianactivistauthorSignatureWebsiteSenate website Campaign websiteBernie Sanders s voice source source Bernie Sanders speaks out against the Iraq WarRecorded October 9 2002Born into a working class Jewish family and raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City Sanders attended Brooklyn College before graduating from the University of Chicago in 1964 While a student he was a protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality CORE and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC during the civil rights movement After settling in Vermont in 1968 he ran unsuccessful third party political campaigns in the early to mid 1970s He was elected mayor of Burlington in 1981 as an independent and was reelected three times He won election to the U S House of Representatives in 1990 representing Vermont s at large congressional district later co founding the Congressional Progressive Caucus He served as a U S representative for 16 years before being elected to the U S Senate in 2006 notably becoming the first non Republican elected to the seat in 152 years Sanders was reelected to the Senate in 2012 and 2018 He chaired the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee from 2013 to 2015 and the Senate Budget Committee from 2021 to 2023 In January 2023 he became chair of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee and the senior senator and dean of the Vermont congressional delegation upon Patrick Leahy s retirement from the Senate Sanders was a major candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020 Despite initially low expectations his 2016 campaign generated significant grassroots enthusiasm and funding from small dollar donors carrying him to victory against eventual nominee Hillary Clinton in 23 primaries and caucuses before he conceded in July 2 In 2020 his strong showing in early primaries and caucuses made him the front runner in a historically large field of Democratic candidates In April 2020 Sanders conceded the nomination to Joe Biden who had won a series of decisive victories as the field narrowed He supported both Clinton and Biden in their respective general election campaigns against Donald Trump Sanders self identifies as a democratic socialist and has been credited with influencing a leftward shift in the Democratic Party after his 2016 presidential campaign An advocate of social democratic and progressive policies he is known for his opposition to economic inequality and neoliberalism On domestic policy he supports labor rights universal and single payer healthcare paid parental leave tuition free tertiary education and an ambitious Green New Deal to create jobs addressing climate change On foreign policy he supports reducing military spending pursuing more diplomacy and international cooperation and putting greater emphasis on labor rights and environmental concerns when negotiating international trade agreements Sanders supports workplace democracy and has praised elements of the Nordic model Some have compared his politics to left wing populism and the New Deal policies of President Franklin D Roosevelt Contents 1 Early life 2 Early career 2 1 Political activism 2 2 Professional history and early years in Vermont 2 3 Liberty Union campaigns 3 Mayor of Burlington Vermont 1981 1989 3 1 Campaigns 3 2 Administration 4 U S House of Representatives 1991 2007 4 1 Elections 4 2 Legislation 4 2 1 Banking reform 4 2 2 Cancer registries 4 2 3 Firearms and criminal justice 4 2 4 Opposition to the Patriot Act 4 2 5 Opposition to the War in Iraq 4 2 6 Trade policy 5 U S Senate 2007 present 5 1 Elections 5 1 1 2006 5 1 2 2012 5 1 3 2018 5 2 Legislation 5 2 1 Finance and monetary policy 5 2 2 Foreign policy 5 2 3 Health care 5 2 4 Immigration policy 5 2 5 Income and wealth distribution 5 2 6 Veterans affairs 5 3 Supreme Court nominees 5 4 Committee assignments 5 5 Caucus memberships 5 6 Approval ratings 6 2016 presidential campaign 6 1 Campaign methods 6 2 Presidential debates 6 3 Polls and news coverage 6 4 DNC email leak 6 5 Endorsement of Hillary Clinton 6 6 Post election activities 6 7 Influence on the Democratic Party 7 2020 presidential campaign 7 1 Campaign methods 7 2 Fundraising 7 3 Polls and news coverage 7 4 Forums and other appearances 7 5 Presidential debates 7 6 Suspension of campaign 8 Political positions 8 1 Climate change 8 2 Economic issues 8 3 Foreign relations 8 4 Gun laws 8 5 Social issues 8 6 Trump administration 8 7 Biden administration 9 Party affiliations 10 Personal life 10 1 Health 10 2 Honors and awards 10 3 Religion heritage and values 11 In popular culture 11 1 Internet culture 11 2 In film and television 12 Publications 13 See also 14 Explanatory notes 15 References 16 Further reading 17 External links 17 1 Official 17 2 OtherEarly life Sanders as a senior in high school 1959 Bernard Sanders was born on September 8 1941 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City 3 His father Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders 1904 1962 4 was born in Slopnice a town in Austrian Galicia that was then part of the Austro Hungarian Empire and is now in Poland 5 6 Elias Sanders immigrated to the United States in 1921 and became a paint salesman 5 7 8 Bernie s mother Dorothy Sanders nee Glassberg 1912 1960 was born in New York City 9 10 He is the younger brother of Larry Sanders Sanders says he became interested in politics at an early age due to his family background 11 In the 1940s many of his relatives in German occupied Poland were murdered in the Holocaust 4 10 12 Sanders lived in Midwood Brooklyn 3 He attended elementary school at P S 197 where he won a borough championship on the basketball team 13 14 He attended Hebrew school in the afternoons and celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1954 12 His older brother Larry said that during their childhood the family never lacked for food or clothing but major purchases like curtains or a rug were not affordable 15 Sanders attended James Madison High School where he was captain of the track team and took third place in the New York City indoor one mile race 13 In high school he lost his first election finishing last of three candidates for the student body presidency with a campaign that focused on aiding Korean War orphans Despite the loss he became active in his school s fundraising activities for Korean orphans including organizing a charity basketball game 16 Sanders attended high school with economist Walter Block 17 When he was 19 his mother died at age 46 10 12 His father died two years later in 1962 at age 57 6 Sanders studied at Brooklyn College for a year in 1959 1960 18 before transferring to the University of Chicago and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1964 18 In later interviews Sanders described himself as a mediocre college student because the classroom was boring and irrelevant and said he viewed community activism as more important to his education 19 Early careerPolitical activism Main article University of Chicago sit ins Sanders later described his time in Chicago as the major period of intellectual ferment in my life 20 While there he joined the Young People s Socialist League the youth affiliate of the Socialist Party of America 21 and was active in the civil rights movement as a student for the Congress of Racial Equality CORE and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC 10 22 Under his chairmanship the university chapter of CORE merged with the university chapter of the SNCC 23 In January 1962 he went to a rally at the University of Chicago administration building to protest university president George Wells Beadle s segregated campus housing policy At the protest Sanders said We feel it is an intolerable situation when Negro and white students of the university cannot live together in university owned apartments He and 32 other students then entered the building and camped outside the president s office 24 25 After weeks of sit ins Beadle and the university formed a commission to investigate discrimination 26 After further protests the University of Chicago ended racial segregation in private university housing in the summer of 1963 20 Joan Mahoney a member of the University of Chicago CORE chapter at the time and a fellow participant in the sit ins described Sanders in a 2016 interview as a swell guy a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn but he wasn t terribly charismatic One of his strengths though was his ability to work with a wide group of people even those he didn t agree with 27 Sanders once spent a day putting up fliers protesting police brutality only to notice later that Chicago police had shadowed him and taken them all down 24 He attended the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Martin Luther King Jr gave the I Have a Dream speech 10 24 28 That summer Sanders was fined 25 equivalent to 221 in 2021 for resisting arrest during a demonstration in Englewood against segregation in Chicago s public schools 20 29 30 In addition to his civil rights activism during the 1960s and 1970s 23 Sanders was active in several peace and antiwar movements while attending the University of Chicago becoming a member of the Student Peace Union He applied for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War his application was eventually turned down by which point he was too old to be drafted Although he opposed the war Sanders never criticized those who fought in it and has strongly supported veterans benefits throughout his political career 31 32 He also was briefly an organizer with the United Packinghouse Workers of America while in Chicago 20 He also worked on the reelection campaign of Leon Despres a prominent Chicago alderman who opposed then mayor Richard J Daley s Democratic Party machine Sanders said that he spent much of his student years reading history sociology psychology and the works of political authors from Thomas Jefferson Abraham Lincoln John Dewey Karl Marx and Erich Fromm reading everything except what I was supposed to read for class the next day 1 33 Professional history and early years in Vermont After graduating from college Sanders returned to New York City where he worked various jobs including Head Start teacher psychiatric aide and carpenter 19 In 1968 he moved to Stannard Vermont a town small in both area and population 88 residents at the 1970 census within Vermont s rural Northeast Kingdom region because he had been captivated by rural life While there he worked as a carpenter 21 filmmaker and writer 34 who created and sold radical film strips and other educational materials to schools 35 He also wrote several articles for the alternative publication The Vermont Freeman 36 He lived in the area for several years before moving to the more populous Chittenden County in the mid 1970s During his 2018 reelection campaign he returned to the town to hold an event with voters and other candidates 37 Liberty Union campaigns Sanders began his electoral political career in 1971 as a member of the Liberty Union Party a national umbrella party for various socialist oriented state parties originating in the anti war movement and the People s Party He ran as the Liberty Union candidate for governor of Vermont in 1972 and 1976 and as a candidate in the special election for U S senator in 1972 and in the general election in 1974 38 In the 1974 senatorial race he finished third 5 901 votes 4 behind 33 year old Chittenden County state s attorney Patrick Leahy D 70 629 votes 49 and two term incumbent U S Representative Dick Mallary R 66 223 votes 46 39 40 The 1976 campaign was the zenith of the Liberty Union s influence with Sanders collecting 11 317 votes for governor and the party His strong performance forced the down ballot races for lieutenant governor and secretary of state to be decided by the state legislature when its vote total prevented either the Republican or Democratic candidate for those offices from garnering a majority of votes 41 The campaign drained the finances and energy of the Liberty Union however and in October 1977 less than a year after the 1976 campaign concluded he and the Liberty Union candidate for attorney general Nancy Kaufman announced their retirement from the party 41 42 During the 1980 presidential election Sanders served as one of three electors for the Socialist Workers Party in Vermont 43 After his resignation from the Liberty Union Party in 1977 Sanders worked as a writer and as the director of the nonprofit American People s Historical Society APHS 44 While with the APHS he produced a 30 minute documentary about American labor leader Eugene V Debs who ran for president five times as the Socialist Party candidate 21 45 Mayor of Burlington Vermont 1981 1989 Main article Mayoralty of Bernie Sanders See also Electoral history of Bernie Sanders Burlington City Hall Campaigns On November 8 1980 Sanders announced his candidacy for mayor He formally announced his campaign on December 16 at a City Hall press conference 46 47 Sanders selected Linda Niedweske as his campaign manager 48 The Citizens Party attempted to nominate Greg Guma for mayor but Guma declined saying it would be difficult to run against another progressive candidate 49 Sanders had been convinced to run for the mayoralty by his close friend Richard Sugarman an Orthodox Jewish professor of religious studies at the University of Vermont who had shown him a ward by ward breakdown of the 1976 Vermont gubernatorial election in which Sanders had run that showed him receiving 12 of the vote in Burlington despite only getting 6 statewide 50 Sanders initially won the mayoral election by 22 votes against Paquette Bove and McGrath but the margin was later reduced to 10 votes Paquette did not contest the results of the recount 51 Paquette s loss was attributed to his own shortcomings as he did not campaign or promote his candidacy since both Sanders and Independent candidate Richard Bove were not seen as a serious challengers as Sanders had not previously won an election 52 Paquette was also considered to have lost because he proposed an unpopular 0 65 per 100 raise in taxes that Sanders opposed 53 Sanders spent around 4 000 on his campaign 54 Sanders castigated the pro development incumbent as an ally of prominent shopping center developer Antonio Pomerleau while Paquette warned of ruin for Burlington if Sanders were elected The Sanders campaign was bolstered by a wave of optimistic volunteers as well as a series of endorsements from university professors social welfare agencies and the police union The result shocked the local political establishment 41 Sanders formed a coalition between independents and the Citizens Party 55 On December 3 1982 he announced that he would seek reelection 56 On January 22 1983 the Citizens Party voted unanimously to endorse Sanders although Sanders ran as an independent 57 He was reelected defeating Judy Stephany and James Gilson 58 Sanders initially considered not seeking a third term but announced on December 5 1984 that he would run 59 He formally launched his campaign on December 7 and was reelected 60 61 On December 1 1986 Sanders who had finished third in the 1986 Vermont gubernatorial election announced that he would seek reelection to a fourth term as mayor of Burlington despite close associates stating that he was tired of being mayor 62 Sanders defeated Democratic nominee Paul Lafayette in the election 63 He said he would not seek another mayoral term after the 1987 election eight years is enough and I think it is time for new leadership which does exist within the coalition to come up 64 Sanders did not run for a fifth term as mayor He went on to lecture in political science at Harvard Kennedy School that year and at Hamilton College in 1991 65 Administration During his mayoralty Sanders called himself a socialist and was so described in the press 66 67 During his first term his supporters including the first Citizens Party city councilor Terry Bouricius formed the Progressive Coalition the forerunner of the Vermont Progressive Party 68 The Progressives never held more than six seats on the 13 member city council but they had enough to keep the council from overriding Sanders s vetoes Under his leadership Burlington balanced its city budget attracted a minor league baseball team the Vermont Reds then the Double A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds 10 became the first U S city to fund community trust housing 69 and successfully sued the local cable television franchise thereby winning reduced rates for customers 10 As mayor Sanders also led extensive downtown revitalization projects One of his primary achievements was improving Burlington s Lake Champlain waterfront 10 In 1981 he campaigned against the unpopular plans by Burlington developer Tony Pomerleau to convert the then industrial 70 waterfront property owned by the Central Vermont Railway into expensive condominiums hotels and offices 71 He ran under the slogan Burlington is not for sale and successfully supported a plan that redeveloped the waterfront area into a mixed use district featuring housing parks and public spaces 71 Sanders was a consistent critic of U S foreign policy in Latin America throughout the 1980s 72 In 1985 Burlington City Hall hosted a foreign policy speech by Noam Chomsky In his introduction he praised Chomsky as a very vocal and important voice in the wilderness of intellectual life in America and said that he was delighted to welcome a person who I think we re all very proud of 73 74 Sanders hosted and produced a public access television program Bernie Speaks with the Community from 1986 to 1988 75 76 He collaborated with 30 Vermont musicians to record a folk album We Shall Overcome in 1987 77 78 That same year U S News amp World Report ranked Sanders one of America s best mayors 79 80 As of 2013 update Burlington was regarded as one of the most livable cities in the United States 81 82 When Sanders left office in 1989 Bouricius a member of the Burlington city council said that Sanders had changed the entire nature of politics in Burlington and also in the state of Vermont 83 U S House of Representatives 1991 2007 See also Electoral history of Bernie Sanders Representative Sanders in 1991 Sanders meeting in 1993 with Hillary Clinton to discuss her plan to reform the healthcare system Elections In 1988 incumbent Republican congressman Jim Jeffords decided to run for the U S Senate vacating the House seat representing Vermont s at large congressional district Former Lieutenant Governor Peter P Smith won the House election with a plurality securing 41 of the vote Sanders who ran as an independent placed second with 38 of the vote while Democratic state representative Paul N Poirier placed third with 19 84 Two years later he ran for the seat again and defeated Smith by a margin of 56 to 39 85 Sanders was the first independent elected to the U S House of Representatives since Frazier Reams of Ohio won his second term in 1952 86 as well as the first socialist elected to the House since Vito Marcantonio from the American Labor Party who won his last term in 1948 87 86 Sanders served as a representative from 1991 until he became a senator in 2007 winning reelection by large margins except during the 1994 Republican Revolution when he won by 3 with 50 of the vote 88 Legislation Sanders meeting with students at Milton High School in Milton Vermont 2004 During his first year in the House Sanders often alienated allies and colleagues with his criticism of both political parties as working primarily on behalf of the wealthy In 1991 he co founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus a group of mostly liberal Democrats that he chaired for its first eight years 10 while still refusing to join the Democratic Party or caucus 89 In 2005 Rolling Stone called Sanders the amendment king for his ability to get more roll call amendments passed than any other congressman during the period since 1995 when Congress was entirely under Republican control Being an independent allowed him to form coalitions across party lines 90 Banking reform In 1999 Sanders voted and advocated against rolling back the Glass Steagall legislation provisions that kept investment banks and commercial banks separate entities 91 He was a vocal critic of Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan in June 2003 during a question and answer discussion Sanders told him he was concerned that he was way out of touch and that you see your major function in your position as the need to represent the wealthy and large corporations 92 93 94 95 Cancer registries Concerned by high breast cancer rates in Vermont on February 7 1992 Sanders sponsored the Cancer Registries Amendment Act to establish cancer registries to collect data on cancer 96 97 Senator Patrick Leahy introduced a companion bill in the Senate on October 2 1992 The Senate bill was passed by the House on October 6 and signed into law by President George H W Bush on October 24 1992 98 Firearms and criminal justice In 1993 Sanders voted against the Brady Bill which mandated federal background checks when buying guns and imposed a waiting period on firearm purchasers in the United States the bill passed by a vote of 238 187 99 100 He voted against the bill four more times in the 1990s explaining his Vermont constituents saw waiting period mandates as more appropriately a state than federal matter 101 Sanders did vote for other gun control measures 102 99 For example in 1994 he voted for the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act because it included the Violence Against Women Act and the ban on certain assault weapons He was nevertheless critical of the other parts of the bill 103 104 Although he acknowledged that clearly there are some people in our society who are horribly violent who are deeply sick and sociopathic and clearly these people must be put behind bars in order to protect society from them he maintained that governmental policies played a large part in dooming tens of millions of young people to a future of bitterness misery hopelessness drugs crime and violence and argued that the repressive policies introduced by the bill were not addressing the causes of violence saying we can create meaningful jobs rebuilding our society or we can build more jails 105 Sanders has at times favored stronger law enforcement and sentencing In 1996 he voted against a bill that would have prohibited police from purchasing tanks and armored carriers 106 107 In 1998 he voted for a bill that would have increased minimum sentencing for possessing a gun while committing a federal crime to ten years in prison including nonviolent crimes such as marijuana possession 106 99 108 In 2005 Sanders voted for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act 109 The purpose of the act was to prevent firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for negligence when crimes have been committed with their products 110 As of 2016 update he said that he has since changed his position and would vote for legislation to defeat this bill 111 Opposition to the Patriot Act Sanders was a consistent critic of the Patriot Act 112 As a member of Congress he voted against the original Patriot Act legislation 113 After its 357 66 passage in the House he sponsored and voted for several subsequent amendments and acts attempting to curtail its effects 114 and voted against each reauthorization 115 In June 2005 he proposed an amendment to limit Patriot Act provisions that allow the government to obtain individuals library and book buying records The amendment passed the House by a bipartisan majority but was removed on November 4 of that year in House Senate negotiations and never became law 116 Opposition to the War in Iraq Sanders voted against the resolutions authorizing the use of force against Iraq in 1991 and 2002 and he opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq He voted for the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists 117 that has been cited as the legal justification for controversial military actions since the September 11 attacks 118 He especially opposed the Bush administration s decision to start a war unilaterally 119 120 Trade policy In February 2005 Sanders introduced a bill that would have withdrawn the permanent normal trade relations PNTR status that had been extended to China in October 2000 He said to the House Anyone who takes an objective look at our trade policy with China must conclude that it is an absolute failure and needs to be fundamentally overhauled citing the American jobs being lost to overseas competitors His bill received 71 co sponsors but was not sent to the floor for a vote 121 122 U S Senate 2007 present Senate portrait 2007 Elections 2006 Main article 2006 United States Senate election in Vermont Sanders entered the race for the U S Senate on April 21 2005 after Senator Jim Jeffords announced that he would not seek a fourth term Chuck Schumer chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and fellow James Madison High School alumnus endorsed Sanders This was a critical move because it meant no Democrat running against him could expect financial help from the party He was also endorsed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic National Committee chair and former Vermont governor Howard Dean Dean said in May 2005 that he considered Sanders an ally who votes with the Democrats 98 of the time 123 Then Senator Barack Obama also campaigned for him in Vermont in March 2006 124 Sanders entered into an agreement with the Democratic Party much as he had as a congressman to be listed in their primary but to decline the nomination should he win which he did 125 126 Sanders being sworn in for his second term in 2013 by Joe Biden In the most expensive political campaign in Vermont s history 127 Sanders defeated businessman Rich Tarrant by an almost 2 to 1 margin Many national media outlets projected him as the winner just after the polls closed before any returns came in 2012 Main article 2012 United States Senate election in Vermont Sanders was reelected in 2012 with 71 of the vote 128 2018 Main article 2018 United States Senate election in Vermont Sanders was reelected in 2018 with 67 of the vote 129 Legislation While a member of Congress Sanders sponsored 15 concurrent resolutions and 15 Senate resolutions 130 Of those he co sponsored 218 became law 131 132 While he has consistently advocated for progressive causes Politico wrote that he has rarely forged actual legislation or left a significant imprint on it 133 According to The New York Times Big legislation largely eludes Mr Sanders because his ideas are usually far to the left of the majority of the Senate Mr Sanders has largely found ways to press his agenda through appending small provisions to the larger bills of others 134 During his time in the Senate he had lower legislative effectiveness than the average senator as measured by the number of sponsored bills that passed and successful amendments made 135 Nevertheless he has sponsored over 500 amendments to bills 136 many of which became law The results of these amendments include a ban on imported goods made by child labor 100 million in funding for community health centers 10 million for an outreach program for servicemembers who have posttraumatic stress disorder traumatic brain injury depression panic attacks and other mental disorders a public database of senior Department of Defense officials seeking employment with defense contractors and including autism treatment in the military healthcare program 137 In August 2022 Sanders voted for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 138 He was not satisfied with the bill calling it only a small step forward Finance and monetary policy In 2008 and 2009 Sanders voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program TARP a program to purchase toxic banking assets and provide loans to banks that were in free fall 139 140 On February 4 2009 he sponsored an amendment to ensure that TARP funds would not displace U S workers The amendment passed and was added to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 137 141 Among his proposed financial reforms is auditing the Federal Reserve which would reduce its independence in monetary policy deliberations Federal Reserve officials say that Audit the Fed legislation would expose the Federal Reserve to undue political pressure from lawmakers who do not like its decisions 142 143 144 source source source source source source source source Sanders spoke for more than eight hours in his December 2010 filibuster On December 10 2010 Sanders delivered an 8 hour and 34 minute speech against the Tax Relief Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 d which proposed extending the Bush era tax rates He argued that the legislation would favor the wealthiest Americans Enough is enough How many homes can you own he asked 146 147 148 Nevertheless the bill passed the Senate with a strong majority and was signed into law a week later 149 In February 2011 Nation Books published the speech as The Speech A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class with authorial proceeds going to Vermont nonprofit charitable organizations 150 In 2016 Sanders voted for the Federal Reserve Transparency Act which included proposals for a reformed audit of the Federal Reserve System 142 143 144 Foreign policy On June 12 2017 U S senators agreed to legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran 151 The bill was opposed only by Sanders and Republican Rand Paul 152 He supported the sanctions on Russia but voted against the bill because he believed the sanctions could endanger the Iran nuclear deal 153 In 2018 Sanders sponsored a bill and was joined by Senators Chris Murphy D CT and Mike Lee R UT to invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution to end U S support for the Saudi led military intervention in Yemen 154 which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties 155 and millions more suffering from starvation and disease 156 157 After the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 which was ordered by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman according to multiple intelligence agencies 154 155 156 158 his bill attracted bipartisan co sponsors and support and the Senate passed it by a vote of 56 41 159 The bill passed the House in February 2019 by a 247 175 vote and President Trump vetoed it in March saying This resolution is an unnecessary dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities endangering the lives of American citizens and brave service members both today and in the future 160 Health care Don t Take Our Health Care rally in Columbus Ohio June 2017 In mid December 2009 Sanders successfully added a provision to the Affordable Care Act to fund 11 billion to community health centers especially those in rural areas The provision brought together Democrats on the left with Democrats from conservative rural areas helping to secure the 60 votes needed for passage 137 On May 4 2017 in response to the House vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act he predicted thousands of Americans would die from no longer having access to health care 161 PolitiFact rated his statement mostly true 162 In September 2017 Sanders along with 15 Senate co sponsors submitted the Medicare for All bill a single payer healthcare plan The bill covers vision and dental care unlike Medicare Some Republicans have called the bill Berniecare and the latest Democratic push for socialized medicine and higher taxes He responded that the Republican Party has no credibility on the issue of health care after voting for legislation that would take health insurance away from 32 million Americans under the Affordable Care Act 163 As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging Sanders introduced legislation in 2013 to reauthorize and strengthen the Older Americans Act which supports Meals on Wheels and other programs for seniors 164 Immigration policy In 2007 Sanders helped kill a bill introducing comprehensive immigration reform arguing that its guest worker program would depress wages for American workers 165 In 2010 he supported the DREAM Act which would have provided a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who had been brought to the United States as minors 165 In 2013 he supported the Gang of Eight s comprehensive immigration reform bill after securing a 1 5 billion youth jobs program provision which he argued would offset the harm of labor market competition with immigrants 165 Income and wealth distribution Sanders introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to 15 an hour April 2017 In April 2017 Sanders introduced a bill that would raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers to 15 an hour an increase over an earlier Democratic 12 an hour proposal 166 On May 9 2018 he introduced the Workplace Democracy Act a bill that would expand labor rights by making it easier for workers to join a union ban right to work laws and some anti union provisions of the Taft Hartley Act and outlaw some union busting tactics Announcing the legislation he said If we are serious about reducing income and wealth inequality and rebuilding the middle class we have got to substantially increase the number of union jobs in this country 167 Sanders opposed the 2018 United States federal budget proposed by the Trump administration calling it a budget for the billionaire class for Wall Street for corporate CEOs and for the wealthiest people in this country nothing less than a massive transfer of wealth from working families the elderly children the sick and the poor to the top 1 168 After the November 2017 revelations from the Paradise Papers and a recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies which says just three people Jeff Bezos Bill Gates and Warren Buffett own more wealth than the bottom half of the U S population Sanders stated that we must end global oligarchy and that we need in the United States and throughout the world a tax system which is fair progressive and transparent 169 On September 5 2018 Sanders partnered with Ro Khanna to introduce the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Stop BEZOS Act which would require large corporations to pay for the food stamps and Medicaid benefits that their employees receive relieving the burden on taxpayers 170 171 Veterans affairs Sanders speaking to members of the Vermont Army National Guard sent to Washington D C as security preparations for the inauguration of Joe Biden in 2021 On June 9 2014 Sanders sponsored the Veterans Access to Care through Choice Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs in the wake of the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014 He worked with Senator John McCain who co sponsored the bill 172 173 His bill was incorporated into the House version of the bill which passed both chambers on July 31 2014 and was signed into law by President Obama on August 7 2014 174 Supreme Court nominees On March 17 2016 Sanders said he would support Merrick Garland s nomination to the Supreme Court though he added there are some more progressive judges out there 175 He opposed Neil Gorsuch s nomination to the court saying that Gorsuch had refused to answer legitimate questions 176 He also objected to Senate Republicans use of the nuclear option to choke off debate and ram Gorsuch s nomination through the Senate 176 He voted against Gorsuch s confirmation as an associate justice and against Trump s nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett 177 178 179 In 2022 Sanders voted to confirm Joe Biden s nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court 180 Committee assignments As an independent Sanders maintains an agreement with the Senate Democratic leadership where he votes with the Democrats on all procedural matters unless the Democratic whip Dick Durbin agrees that he need not a request rarely made or granted In return he was allowed to keep his seniority and received the committee seats that would have been available to him as a Democrat in 2013 14 he was chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs during the Veterans Health Administration scandal 181 182 Sanders became the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee in 2015 and the chair in 2021 he previously chaired the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee for two years Since 2017 he has been chair of the Senate Democratic Outreach Committee 182 He appointed economics professor Stephanie Kelton a modern monetary theory scholar as the chief economic adviser for the committee s Democratic minority and presented a report about helping rebuild the disappearing middle class that included proposals to raise the minimum wage boost infrastructure spending and increase Social Security payments 183 As of 2023 update Sanders s committee assignments are as follows 184 185 Committee on the Budget former chair Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy Subcommittee on National Parks Subcommittee on Water and Power Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee on Green Jobs and the New Economy Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions chair Subcommittee on Children and Families Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security Committee on Veterans Affairs former chair Caucus memberships Sanders was only the third senator from Vermont to caucus with the Democrats after Jeffords and Leahy His caucusing with the Democrats gave them a 51 49 majority in the Senate during the 110th Congress in 2007 08 The Democrats needed 51 seats to control the Senate because Vice President Dick Cheney would likely have broken potential ties in favor of the Republicans 186 He is a member of the following caucuses Congressional Progressive Caucus 187 Democratic Caucus of the United States Senate United States Senate Afterschool Caucus 188 Approval ratings Polling conducted in August 2011 by Public Policy Polling found that Sanders s approval rating was 67 and his disapproval rating 28 making him then the third most popular U S senator 189 Both the NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the NHLA National Hispanic Leadership Agenda have given him 100 voting scores during his tenure in the Senate 190 In 2015 he was named one of the Top 5 of The Forward 50 191 In a November 2015 Morning Consult poll he reached an 83 approval rating among his constituents making him the most popular U S senator 192 Fox News found him to have the highest net favorability at 28 points of any prominent politician included in its March 2017 poll 193 He ranked third in 2014 and first in both 2015 and 2016 192 189 194 In April 2017 a nationwide Harvard Harris Poll found that Sanders had the highest favorability rating among all the political figures included in the poll 195 a standing confirmed by subsequent polling 196 2016 presidential campaignMain articles Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign and 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries Sanders rally in Portland Oregon August 2015 Sanders speaking at Rutgers University in May 2016 During the 2012 Democratic presidential primaries Sanders dissatisfied with President Obama s attempts to trade Social Security cuts for tax hikes reportedly considered running against him in the primaries Sanders had previously suggested in 2011 that it was a good idea for someone to challenge Obama and got so close to running a primary challenge that Senator Harry Reid had to intervene to stop him 197 In November 2013 Sanders suggested that Senator Elizabeth Warren could be president and that she might earn his backing if she ran He added that if no progressive candidate ran he might feel compelled to do so himself 198 199 In December 2014 Warren said she was not running 200 Sanders announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party s nomination for president on April 30 2015 201 202 203 204 His campaign was officially launched on May 26 in Burlington 203 In his announcement Sanders said I don t believe that the men and women who defended American democracy fought to create a situation where billionaires own the political process and made this a central idea throughout his campaign 202 203 Warren welcomed Sanders s entry into the race saying I m glad to see him get out there and give his version of what leadership in this country should be but never endorsed him 205 206 Initially considered a long shot Sanders won 23 primaries and caucuses and around 46 of pledged delegates to Hillary Clinton s 54 His campaign was noted for its supporters enthusiasm as well as for rejecting large donations from corporations the financial industry and any associated Super PAC Some of the Democratic National Committee DNC emails leaked to the public in June and July 2016 showed that the committee leadership had favored Clinton over him and had worked to help Clinton win the nomination 207 On July 12 2016 Sanders formally endorsed Clinton in her unsuccessful general election campaign against Republican Donald Trump while urging his supporters to continue the political revolution his campaign had begun 208 Campaign methods Unlike the other major candidates Sanders did not pursue funding through a Super PAC or from wealthy donors instead focusing on small dollar donations 209 His presidential campaign raised 1 5 million within 24 hours of his official announcement 210 At the end of the year the campaign had raised a total of 73 million from more than one million people making 2 5 million donations with an average donation of 27 16 211 The campaign reached 3 25 million donations by the end of January 2016 raising 20 million in that month alone 212 Sanders used social media to help his campaign gain momentum 213 posting content to online platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and answering questions on Reddit He gained a large grassroots organizational following online A July 29 2015 meetup organized online brought 100 000 supporters to more than 3 500 simultaneous events nationwide 214 To his surprise Sanders s June 2015 campaign events drew overflow crowds across the country 215 216 217 When Clinton and Sanders made public appearances within days of each other in Des Moines Iowa he drew larger crowds even though he had already made many stops around the state and Clinton s visit was her first in 2015 218 On July 1 2015 his campaign stop in Madison Wisconsin drew the largest crowd of any 2016 presidential candidate to that date with an estimated turnout of 10 000 219 220 Over the following weeks he drew even larger crowds 11 000 in Phoenix 221 15 000 in Seattle 222 and 28 000 in Portland Oregon 223 Presidential debates Main article 2016 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums The Democratic National Committee DNC announced in May 2015 that there would be six debates Critics alleged that the small number of debates and the schedule with half of the debates on Saturday or Sunday nights were part of the DNC s deliberate attempt to protect Clinton who was perceived as the front runner 224 In February 2016 both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns agreed in principle to holding four more debates for a total of ten 225 Clinton dropped out of the tenth debate scheduled to take place just before the California primary citing a need to devote her time to making direct contact with California voters and preparing for the general election 226 Sanders expressed disappointment that Clinton canceled the debate before what he believed would be the largest and most important primary in the presidential nominating process 227 Polls and news coverage See also Media coverage of Bernie Sanders Some Sanders supporters raised concerns that publications such as The New York Times minimized coverage of the Sanders campaign in favor of other candidates especially Trump and Clinton The Times ombudsman reviewed her paper s coverage of the Sanders campaign and found that as of September 2015 update the Times hasn t always taken it very seriously The tone of some stories is regrettably dismissive even mocking at times Some of that is focused on the candidate s age appearance and style rather than what he has to say She also found that the Times s coverage of Sanders s campaign was much scanter than its coverage of Trump s though Trump s was also initially considered a long shot at that time with 63 articles covering the Trump campaign and 14 covering Sanders s 228 229 A December 2015 report found that the three major networks CBS NBC and ABC had spent 234 minutes reporting on Trump and 10 minutes on Sanders despite their similar polling results The report noted that ABC World News Tonight had spent 81 minutes on Trump and less than one minute on Sanders during 2015 230 A study of media coverage in the 2016 election concluded that while Sanders received less coverage than his rival Hillary Clinton the amount of coverage of Sanders during the election was largely consistent with his polling performance except during 2015 when Sanders received coverage that far exceeded his standing in the polls 231 Studies concluded that the tone of media coverage of Sanders was more favorable than that of any other candidate whereas his main opponent in the democratic primary Hillary Clinton received the most negative coverage of any candidate 232 231 All 2016 candidates received vastly less media coverage than Donald Trump and the Democratic primary received substantially less coverage than the Republican primary 231 232 233 Amy Goodman of Democracy Now noted that on March 15 Super Tuesday III the speeches of Trump Clinton Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were broadcast in full Sanders was in Phoenix Arizona on that date speaking to a rally larger than any of the others yet his speech was not mentioned let alone broadcast 234 However political scientist Rachel Bitecofer wrote in her 2018 book about the 2016 election that the Democratic primary was effectively over in terms of delegate count by mid March 2016 but that the media promoted the narrative that the contest between Sanders and Clinton was heating up at that time 233 An NBC Wall Street Journal poll conducted in May 2016 found Clinton and Trump by then the presumptive Republican nominee in a dead heat but the same poll found that if Sanders were the Democratic nominee 53 of voters would support him to 39 for Trump 235 Clinton and Trump were the least popular likely candidates ever polled while Sanders received a 43 positive 36 negative rating 236 Polls showed that Democratic voters older than 50 preferred Clinton by a large margin but that those under 50 overwhelmingly favored Sanders 237 A 2017 analysis in Newsweek found that 12 of those who voted for Sanders in the Democratic primary voted for Trump in the general election 238 a lower proportion than that of Clinton supporters in 2008 who voted for John McCain 239 240 DNC email leak Main articles 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak and Podesta emails In July 2016 a leak of the Democratic National Committee s emails appeared to show DNC officials favoring Clinton over Sanders Staff repeatedly discussed making his irreligious tendencies a potential campaign issue in southern states and questioned his party loyalty DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz called his campaign manager an ass and a damn liar 241 Speaking with Jake Tapper on CNN Sanders responded to the leak saying it is an outrage and sad that you would have people in important positions in the DNC trying to undermine my campaign It goes without saying the function of the DNC is to represent all of the candidates to be fair and even minded But again we discussed this many many months ago on this show so what is revealed now is not a shock to me 242 Endorsement of Hillary Clinton Main articles Results of the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries and 2016 United States presidential election Sanders campaigning for Hillary Clinton at Nashua Community College in October 2016 After the final primary election Clinton became the presumptive Democratic nominee 243 On July 12 Sanders formally endorsed Clinton 208 He said he would continue to work with the Democratic National Convention organizers to implement progressive positions Sanders refused to formally concede before the convention 244 He spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 25 during which he gave Clinton his full support Some of his supporters attempted to protest Clinton s nomination and booed when Sanders called for party unity He responded Our job is to do two things to defeat Donald Trump and to elect Hillary Clinton It is easy to boo but it is harder to look your kids in the face if we are living under a Trump presidency 245 On November 8 in the general election Sanders received almost 6 of the vote in Vermont even though he was no longer a candidate This was the highest share of a statewide presidential vote for a write in draft campaign in American history 246 He also received more votes in Vermont than Gary Johnson the Libertarian candidate and Jill Stein the Green candidate combined 247 It was possible to vote for Sanders as a write in candidate in 12 states 248 and exact totals of write in votes for him were published in three of them California 249 New Hampshire 250 and Vermont 247 In those three states he received 111 850 write in votes about 15 of the write in votes nationwide and less than 1 of total nationwide vote 248 Post election activities In November 2016 Sanders s book Our Revolution A Future to Believe In was released upon its release it was number three on The New York Times Best Seller list 251 The audiobook later received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album 252 In February 2017 he began webcasting The Bernie Sanders Show on Facebook live streaming As of April 2 2017 update guests had included William Barber Josh Fox Jane Mayer and Bill Nye 253 254 Polls taken in 2017 found him to be the most popular politician in the United States 195 255 In February 2018 Special Counsel Robert Mueller s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U S elections concluded that Russians had communicated false information during the primary campaigns to help Sanders and Stein and harm Clinton 256 Sanders rejected the investigation s conclusion saying that he had seen no evidence that Russians had helped his campaign 257 Furthermore he blamed the Clinton campaign for not doing more to prevent Russian interference 257 He later said that his campaign had taken action to prevent Russian meddling in the election and that a campaign staffer had alerted the Clinton campaign 258 Politico noted that a Sanders campaign volunteer contacted a political action committee PAC that supported the Clinton campaign to report suspicious activities but that the Sanders campaign did not contact the Clinton campaign as such 258 In November 2018 the Sanders Institute and Yanis Varoufakis co founder of DiEM25 launched Progressive International an international organization uniting progressive activists and organizations to mobilize people around the world to transform the global order and the institutions that shape it 259 260 261 Influence on the Democratic Party Analysts have suggested that Sanders s campaign shifted both the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party politically leftward A new political organization Brand New Congress was formed in April 2016 by former campaign staffers It works to elect congressional representatives with platforms in line with Sanders 262 In August 2016 he formed Our Revolution a political organization dedicated to educating voters about issues getting people involved in the political process and electing progressive candidates for local state and national office 263 264 Speaking on the PBS Newshour about the upcoming 2018 elections and discussing the main principles of the two major parties Susan Page described the Republican Party as Trump s party and the Democratic Party as Bernie Sanders s party saying that Sanders and his more progressive stance has really taken hold 265 Noting the increasing acceptance of his national single payer health care program his 15 an hour minimum wage stance free college tuition and many of the other campaign platform issues he introduced 266 267 an April 2018 opinion article in The Week suggested Quietly but steadily the Democratic Party is admitting that Sanders was right 268 In July 2016 a Slate article called the Democratic platform draft a monument to his campaign noting not only his call for a 15 minimum wage but other campaign issues such as Social Security expansion a carbon tax Wall Street reform opposition to the death penalty and a reasoned pathway for future legalization of marijuana 269 Sanders s presidential campaigns led to a resurgence of interest in social democracy and democratic socialism among millennials 270 2020 presidential campaignMain articles Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign and 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries On February 19 2019 Sanders announced that he would seek the Democratic Party s 2020 nomination for president 271 He had declined the Vermont Democratic Party nomination for U S Senate in 2006 2012 and 2018 which caused an unsuccessful legal challenge to his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 Along with his 2019 campaign announcement he said he would abide by a new Democratic Party rule for presidential candidates and that he would affirm his membership in that party 272 On March 5 2019 he signed a formal statement known as a loyalty pledge that he is a member of the Democratic Party and will serve as a Democrat if elected News reports noted that the day before he had signed paperwork to run as an independent for reelection to his Senate seat in 2024 273 Sanders s campaign manager was Faiz Shakir The campaign s national co chairs were Ben amp Jerry s co founder Ben Cohen Representative Ro Khanna Our Revolution President Nina Turner and San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz 274 275 Campaign methods Given the high national profile that Sanders maintained since his 2016 campaign NPR described him as no longer an underdog when he announced his 2020 campaign 276 Using the large email list it built during the 2016 campaign the 2020 campaign recruited more than one million volunteers within weeks of its launch It enlisted several former NowThis News employees to produce professional videos for wide social media distribution live streamed various forums to its millions of social media followers and launched a podcast and smartphone app for grassroots organizing 277 Fundraising Sanders s 2020 campaign employed many of the same methods as its 2016 counterpart eschewing a Super PAC and relying predominantly on small dollar contributions According to Federal Election Commission filings the Sanders campaign had raised the most money in the 2020 Democratic field as of June 2019 including money left over from his 2018 Senate and 2016 presidential races 278 279 280 In September 2019 the Sanders campaign became the fastest in U S history to reach one million donors 281 On October 1 2019 the campaign announced it had raised 25 3 million in the year s third quarter with an average donation of 18 It was the largest quarterly sum raised by any Democratic candidate 282 283 The campaign raised 34 5 million during the fourth quarter of 2019 284 Polls and news coverage Sanders campaigning for president in San Jose California March 2020 See also Media coverage of Bernie Sanders Sanders steadily polled between 15 and 20 on most national surveys between May and September 2019 according to the RealClearPolitics average This placed him in a decisive second place behind Joe Biden until Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris caught up in July 285 From mid February 2020 to the start of March Sanders polled in first place in the Democratic primary ahead of Joe Biden 286 287 and was described by the press as the party s presidential front runner 288 289 290 291 According to a RealClearPolitics analysis Sanders received the third most mentions on CNN Fox News and MSNBC between January and August 2019 trailing only Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Biden however received twice as many mentions as Sanders and Harris Mentions of Sanders on ABC World News Tonight found him in second place though also trailing Biden by a large margin Online mentions reflect a slightly more balanced picture with both Sanders and Elizabeth Warren running neck and neck with Biden 292 Forums and other appearances Main article 2020 Democratic Party presidential forums On April 6 2019 Sanders participated in a Fox News town hall that attracted more than 2 55 million viewers 293 294 His decision to appear on Fox was controversial given the Democratic National Committee s decision not to allow Fox to host any of its debates 295 296 His appearance saw an increase of Fox News viewers by 24 overall and 40 in the 25 to 54 year old demographic surpassing the ratings of all other Democratic presidential candidate town halls that year As of September 2019 the town hall had received more than 1 5 million views on YouTube 297 On August 6 2019 Sanders appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast Some praised Rogan for hosting a pragmatic discussion while others seemed rather stunned by Sanders s decision to appear on the show at all After the podcast Rogan became a top trending Twitter topic 298 After interviewing him Rogan said I am not right wing I ve interviewed right wing people I am 100 left wing Bernie Sanders made a ton of sense to me and I would 100 vote for him 299 As of October 2019 the podcast had received more than ten million views on YouTube 300 Presidential debates See also 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates In December 2018 the Democratic National Committee DNC announced the preliminary schedule for 12 official DNC sanctioned debates set to begin in June 2019 with six in 2019 and the remaining six during the first four months of 2020 During the July and September debates commentators described Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as having a non aggression pact staking out similar progressive positions in contrast to the more conservative candidates 301 302 In the October 15 debate his first appearance since his heart attack debate coach Todd Graham gave Sanders s performance an A his highest rating of all the candidates 303 CNN hosted the first 2020 debate in January with six candidates remaining Co moderator Abby Phillip questioned Sanders and Warren about an allegation Warren had made that he had privately told her that a woman could not defeat Donald Trump Phillip asked Sanders Senator Sanders CNN reported yesterday and Senator Warren confirmed in a statement that in 2018 you told her that you did not believe that a woman could win the election Why did you say that Ignoring Sanders s strong denial Phillip asked Warren What did you think when Bernie Sanders told you that a woman couldn t become president In an interview after the debate Sanders called it ludicrous to believe that he would doubt a woman s ability to win the presidency and noted that a woman already had won the national popular vote saying After all Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016 304 Suspension of campaign Sanders announced that he was suspending his campaign on April 8 2020 305 306 307 He stated that he would remain on the ballot in the remaining states and continue to accumulate delegates with the goal of influencing the Democratic Party s platform 308 305 309 On April 14 Sanders endorsed Biden Biden responded I think that your endorsement means a great deal It means a great deal to me I think people are going to be surprised that we are apart on some issues but we re awfully close on a whole bunch of others I m going to need you not just to win the campaign but to govern 310 Political positionsMain article Political positions of Bernie Sanders A self described democratic socialist 311 Sanders is a progressive who admires the Nordic model of social democracy and has been a proponent of workplace democracy via union democracy and worker cooperatives 312 He is a strong critic of contemporary neoliberal capitalism which he calls uber capitalism blaming it for such societal ills as declining life expectancy and rising diseases of despair 313 314 315 He advocates universal single payer healthcare paid parental leave and tuition free tertiary education 316 He supports lowering the cost of drugs by reforming patent laws to allow cheaper generic versions to be sold in the U S 317 He supported the Affordable Care Act though he said it did not go far enough citation needed In November 2015 he gave a speech at Georgetown University about his view of democratic socialism including its place in the policies of presidents Franklin D Roosevelt and Lyndon B Johnson 318 319 Defining what democratic socialism means to him Sanders said I don t believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production but I do believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up not down I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America companies that create jobs here rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low wage labor abroad 320 Based on his positions and votes throughout his career many commentators consider his political platform primarily focused on tax funded social benefits and not on social ownership of the means of production 321 322 Some socialists have described Sanders as a market socialist or reformist socialist 323 324 while others have called him a reformist social democrat 325 326 Some political commentators have described Sanders s political philosophy as welfarism 327 or social democracy 328 Others describe his philosophy as extending from such existing liberal programs in the U S as Social Security and Medicare 329 330 e and more consistent with Nordic social democracy 331 330 332 Bhaskar Sunkara has characterized Sanders politics as class struggle social democracy arguing that while postwar social democracy operated as a compromise that instituted tripartite arrangements between business labor and government to dampen class conflict Sanders sees social democratic demands as a means to sharpening class confrontation and raising class consciousness 333 His views have been echoed by George Eaton arguing that Sunkara s phrase captures the nuances of Sanders politics in a way that a socialist social democrat binary does not and asserting that if he was elected president it would represent the triumph of a politics that is neither wholly socialist nor social democratic but a new fusion of both 334 Climate change Further information Climate policy of the United States Sanders views global warming as a serious problem 335 and advocates bold action to reverse its effects He calls for substantial investment in infrastructure with energy efficiency sustainability and job creation as prominent goals 336 337 He considers climate change the greatest threat to national security 338 335 He said that family planning can help fight climate change 339 He opposed the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on the grounds that like the Keystone XL Pipeline it will have a significant impact on our climate 340 In 2019 he announced his support for Green New Deal legislation 341 and joined Representatives Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Earl Blumenauer in proposing legislation that would declare climate change a national and international emergency 342 Economic issues Sanders focuses on economic issues such as income and wealth inequality 311 343 poverty 344 raising the minimum wage 166 universal healthcare 316 cancelling all student debt 345 making public colleges and universities tuition free by taxing financial transactions 346 and expanding Social Security benefits by eliminating the cap on the payroll tax on all incomes above 250 000 347 348 He has become a prominent supporter of laws requiring companies to give their workers parental leave sick leave and vacation time noting that such laws have been adopted by nearly all other developed countries 349 He also supports legislation that would make it easier for workers to join or form a trade union 350 351 He was against the Troubled Asset Relief Program 352 and has called for comprehensive financial reforms 353 such as breaking up too big to fail financial institutions restoring Glass Steagall legislation reforming the Federal Reserve Bank and allowing the Post Office to offer basic financial services in economically marginalized communities 354 355 356 357 Believing greater emphasis is needed on labor rights and environmental concerns when negotiating international trade agreements Sanders voted against and has long spoken against NAFTA CAFTA and PNTR with China He has called them a disaster for the American worker saying that they have resulted in American corporations moving abroad He also opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership which he says was written by corporate America and the pharmaceutical industry and Wall Street 358 359 On May 1 2019 he tweeted Since the China trade deal I voted against America has lost over three million manufacturing jobs It s wrong to pretend that China isn t one of our major economic competitors 360 Sanders also strongly opposes outsourcing American jobs 361 During discussions of the United States Innovation and Competition Act which was to be used to fund the manufacture of semiconductors amid a shortage he proposed a measure to ensure the companies the bill funded could not outsource their jobs The proposed measure would also block the companies from forbidding their employees to unionize Sanders s proposal was voted down by most Democrats and all Republicans in the Senate 362 363 Ahead of the 2022 midterms Sanders said he wants the Democratic Party to focus more on supporting unionization I think we should move to a system where if 50 of the workers in a bargaining unit plus one vote to form a union they have a union End of discussion 364 Foreign relations Sanders steps out of a Sikorsky UH 60 Black Hawk helicopter after arriving in Afghanistan in 2011 Sanders supports reducing military spending while pursuing more diplomacy and international cooperation He opposed funding Nicaraguan rebels known as contras in the CIA s covert war against Nicaragua s leftist government 365 He opposed the U S invasion of Iraq and has criticized a number of policies instituted during the War on Terror particularly that of mass surveillance and the USA Patriot Act 366 367 368 369 He criticized Israel s actions during the 2014 Gaza war 370 and U S involvement in the Saudi Arabian led intervention in Yemen 371 On November 15 2015 in response to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ISIL s attacks in Paris he cautioned against Islamophobia and said We gotta be tough not stupid in the war against ISIL adding that the U S should continue to welcome Syrian refugees 372 He criticized the January 2020 drone assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani calling it a dangerous escalation of tensions that could lead to an expensive war 373 Sanders supports Palestinian rights and has criticized Israel on several occasions In 2020 he called the American Israel Public Affairs Committee a platform for bigotry and said he would not attend its conference 374 He condemned Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital saying It would dramatically undermine the prospects for an Israeli Palestinian peace agreement and severely perhaps irreparably damage the United States ability to broker that peace 375 376 Addressing Westminster College in a September 2017 speech Sanders laid out a foreign policy plan for greater international collaboration adherence to U S led international agreements such as the Paris Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal framework and promoting human rights and democratic ideals He emphasized the consequences associated with global economic inequality and climate change and urged reining in the use of U S military power saying it must always be a last resort He also criticized U S support for murderous regimes during the Cold War such as those in Iran Chile and El Salvador and said that those actions continue to make the U S less safe 377 378 He also spoke critically of Russian interference in the 2016 U S elections and the way President Trump has handled the crisis 379 He does not consider Turkey a U S ally and condemned the Turkish military offensive against U S aligned Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria 380 Gun laws Sanders supports closing the gun show loophole banning assault weapons and passing and enforcing universal federal background checks for gun purchases 381 382 383 In 1990 he was supported by the National Rifle Association in his bid to become a U S Representative in exchange for opposing both the competing campaign of Peter Smith who had reversed his stance on firearm restrictions and waiting periods for handgun purchases 384 In 1993 while a U S Representative he voted against the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act which established background checks and wait periods and in 2005 voted for legislation that gave gun manufacturers legal immunity against claims of negligence but as of 2016 update he has since said that he would support repealing that law 111 In 1996 he voted against additional funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research on issues related to firearms but in 2016 he called for an increase in CDC funding for the study of gun violence 111 Social issues On social issues Sanders has long taken liberal stances 385 He considers himself a feminist 386 is pro choice on abortion and opposes defunding Planned Parenthood 387 He has long advocated for LGBT rights in 2009 he supported legalizing same sex marriage in Vermont 388 Sanders has denounced institutional racism and called for criminal justice reform to reduce the number of people in prison 389 advocates a crackdown on police brutality and supports abolishing private for profit prisons 390 391 and the death penalty 392 He supports Black Lives Matter 393 He also supports legalizing marijuana at the federal level 394 He has advocated for greater democratic participation by citizens campaign finance reform and a constitutional amendment or judicial decision that would overturn Citizens United v FEC 395 396 397 Trump administration Sanders criticized President Trump for appointing multiple billionaires to his cabinet 398 He criticized Trump s rolling back President Obama s Clean Power Plan noting the scientifically reported effect on climate change of human activity and citing Trump s calling those reports a hoax 399 He called for caution on the Syrian Civil War saying It s easier to get into a war than out of one 400 better source needed In 2017 he promised to defeat Trump and Trumpism and the Republican right wing ideology 401 Sanders gave an online reply to Trump s January 2018 State of the Union address in which he called Trump compulsively dishonest and criticized him for initiating a looming immigration crisis by ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program He voiced concern about Trump s failure to mention the finding that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election and will likely interfere in the 2018 midterms we will be holding Unless you have a very special relationship with Mr Putin 402 On January 6 2021 Trump supporters attacked the United States Capitol Sanders commented Trump has made it clear that he will do anything to remain in power including insurrection and inciting violence and he will go down in history as the worst and most dangerous president in history 403 Sanders voted to convict Trump on both articles of his first impeachment trial in 2020 for pressuring a foreign leader to investigate Joe Biden and again on the sole article of his second impeachment trial in 2021 for inciting the Capitol attack 404 Biden administration Sanders influenced the environmental policy goals of the Biden administration as described before Biden s nomination Biden s policy team took some but not all of the Biden Sanders Unity Task Forces climate recommendations 405 needs update After Biden was elected president Sanders became the subject of speculation over a potential appointment as Labor Secretary which was supported by several progressive groups such as the Sunrise Movement 406 For his part Sanders said that he would accept Biden s nomination if it was offered but Boston mayor Marty Walsh was chosen for the position instead When announcing Walsh s nomination Biden confirmed that he had discussed the position with Sanders but the two agreed that Sanders s resignation from the Senate and the ensuing special election would have put the Democrats slim Senate majority at risk 407 On February 23 2021 Sanders became the first senator in the Democratic caucus to oppose one of Biden s cabinet picks when he voted against Tom Vilsack s confirmation as Agriculture Secretary citing concerns about Vilsack s past work as a lobbyist and ties to large corporations 408 Sanders strongly supported Senate Democrats decision to use budget reconciliation a procedure used to avoid filibusters to pass the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 despite having criticized Republicans use of reconciliation to pass the 2017 tax cuts 409 The bill passed the Senate by a 50 49 vote and was signed into law by Biden on March 11 2021 410 Sanders has continued to have a strong influence on the Biden administration When it was noted that he had become a key voice in Biden s administration he replied As somebody who wrote a book called Outsider in the House yes it is a strange experience to be having that kind of influence that we have now Their relationship has lasted over 30 years and Sanders has said it is based on respect and trust We have had a good relationship He wants to be a champion of working families and I admire that and respect that 411 Before the 2022 midterm election Sanders said he regarded it as deciding the fate of democracy abortion and climate change calling it the most consequential midterm election of modern U S history He expressed a fear that the Democratic Party had not done a good enough job of getting its message out to young people and working class people 412 After the election Sanders said it went a hell of a lot better than we had anticipated and that discussion about the economy had a very strong impact that helped Democrats He also pointed to John Fetterman s successful campaign as a model for future Democratic efforts saying that Fetterman had strongly identified with the working class during the Pennsylvania election 413 Party affiliationsBorn into a Democratic voting family Sanders was first introduced to political activism when his brother Larry joined the Young Democrats of America and campaigned for Adlai Stevenson II in 1956 414 Sanders joined Vermont s Liberty Union Party in 1971 and was a candidate for several offices never coming close to winning election He became party chairman 415 but quit in 1977 to become an independent 416 In 1980 he served as an elector for the Socialist Workers Party 417 418 In 1981 Sanders ran as an independent for mayor of Burlington Vermont and defeated the Democratic incumbent he was reelected three times 69 Although an independent he endorsed Democratic presidential candidates Walter Mondale in 1984 and Jesse Jackson in 1988 His endorsement of Mondale was lukewarm telling reporters that if you go around saying that Mondale would be a great president you would be a liar and a hypocrite but he supported Jackson enthusiastically 419 The Washington Post reported that the Jackson campaign helped inspire Sanders to work more closely with the Democratic Party 419 1 Sanders attended the 1983 conference of the Socialist Party USA where he gave a speech 420 Sanders first ran for the U S House of Representatives in 1988 and for the U S Senate in 2006 each time adopting a strategy of winning the Democratic Party primary thereby eliminating Democratic challengers and then running as an independent in the general election 421 He continued this strategy through his reelection in the 2018 United States Senate election in Vermont 422 Throughout his tenure in Congress he has been listed as an independent He caucused with Democrats in the House 10 while refusing to join the party 89 and continues to caucus with Democrats in the Senate 186 Some conservative southern House Democrats initially barred him from the caucus as they believed that allowing a self described socialist to join would harm their electoral prospects 1 He soon came to work constructively with Democrats voting with the party over 90 of the time during his tenure in Congress 1 Starting with his 2016 presidential campaign Sanders s announcements suggested that not only was he running as a Democrat but that he would run as a Democrat in future elections 423 424 425 When challenged by Clinton about his party commitment he said Of course I am a Democrat and running for the Democratic nomination 426 Since he remained a senator elected as an independent his U S Senate website and press materials continued to refer to him as an independent during the campaign and upon his return to the Senate 427 428 In October 2017 Sanders said he would run for reelection as an independent in 2018 despite pressure to run as a Democrat 429 His party status became ambiguous again in March 2019 when he signed a formal loyalty pledge to the Democratic Party stating that he was a member of the party and would serve as a Democrat if elected president He signed the pledge the day after he signed paperwork to run as an independent for reelection to the Senate in 2024 273 After Trump s victory in the 2016 elections Sanders suggested the Democratic Party undergo a series of reforms and that it break loose from its corporate establishment ties and once again become a grass roots party of working people the elderly and the poor 430 He drew parallels between his campaign and that of the Labour Party in the 2017 UK general election 431 432 He wrote in The New York Times that the British elections should be a lesson for the Democratic Party and urged the Democrats to stop holding on to an overly cautious centrist ideology arguing that momentum shifted to Labour after it released a very progressive manifesto that generated much enthusiasm among young people and workers 433 434 He had earlier praised Jeremy Corbyn s stance on class issues 435 Sanders is one of three independents in the Senate the others being Angus King who also caucuses with the Democrats and Kyrsten Sinema 436 Personal life Sanders with his wife Jane O Meara in Des Moines Iowa January 2016 In 1963 Sanders and Deborah Shiling Messing whom he met in college volunteered for several months on the Israeli kibbutz Sha ar HaAmakim They married in 1964 and bought a summer home in Vermont they had no children and divorced in 1966 21 437 438 10 His son and only biological child Levi Sanders was born in 1969 to then girlfriend Susan Campbell Mott 19 On May 28 1988 Sanders married Jane O Meara Driscoll nee Mary Jane O Meara who later became president of Burlington College in Burlington Vermont 439 The day after their wedding the couple visited the Soviet Union as part of an official delegation in his capacity as mayor 440 They own a row house in Capitol Hill a house in Burlington s New North End neighborhood and a lakefront summer home in North Hero 441 442 443 444 He considers Jane s three children Dave Driscoll born 1975 Carina Driscoll born 1974 and Heather Titus nee Driscoll 1971 to be his own 21 18 Sanders s elder brother Larry lives in England 445 he was a Green Party county councillor representing the East Oxford division on Oxfordshire County Council until he retired from the council in 2013 446 447 Larry ran as a Green Party candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon in the 2015 British general election and came in fifth 448 449 Bernie Sanders told CNN I owe my brother an enormous amount It was my brother who actually introduced me to a lot of my ideas 449 Health On October 1 2019 Sanders was hospitalized after experiencing chest pains at a campaign event in Las Vegas His campaign announced the next day that a blockage had been found in one coronary artery and two stents inserted 450 Scheduled campaign events and appearances were canceled until further notice 451 Two days later his campaign released a statement that he had been diagnosed with a heart attack He was released from the hospital the same day 450 The statement included the following from Sanders s doctors 452 After presenting to an outside facility with chest pain Sen Sanders was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction He was immediately transferred to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center The senator was stable upon arrival and taken immediately to the cardiac catheterization laboratory at which time two stents were placed in a blocked coronary artery in a timely fashion All other arteries were normal His hospital course was uneventful with good expected progress He was discharged with instructions to follow up with his personal physician A few days after returning home Sanders addressed media outside his home and said he had experienced fatigue and chest discomfort for a month or two before the incident he expressed regret for not seeking medical assessment sooner I was dumb 453 Sanders made his first national appearance after his heart attack on October 15 at the Democratic debate at which he said I m healthy I m feeling great When asked how he would reassure voters about his health and ability to take on the duties of the presidency he said We are going to be mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country That is how I think I can reassure the American people It was noted that he was lively and sharp at the debate 454 In December 2019 three months after the heart attack Sanders released letters from three physicians Attending Physician of Congress Brian P Monahan and two cardiologists who declared Sanders healthy and recovered from his heart condition 455 Honors and awards On December 4 2015 Sanders won Time s 2015 Person of the Year readers poll with 10 2 of the vote 456 457 but did not receive the editorial board s award On March 20 2016 he was given an honorary Coast Salish name dxʷshudicup f by Deborah Parker in Seattle to honor his focus on Native American issues during his presidential campaign 458 On May 30 2017 Sanders received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Brooklyn College 459 Religion heritage and values As Sanders described his upbringing as an American Jew in a 2016 speech his father generally attended synagogue only on Yom Kippur he attended public schools while his mother chafed at his yeshiva Sunday schooling at a Hebrew school and their religious observances were mostly limited to Passover seders with their neighbors Larry Sanders said of their parents They were very pleased to be Jews but didn t have a strong belief in God 460 Bernie had a bar mitzvah 461 at the historic Kingsway Jewish Center in Midwood Brooklyn where he grew up 460 In 1963 in cooperation with the Labor Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair Sanders and his first wife volunteered at Sha ar HaAmakim a kibbutz in northern Israel 462 463 464 11 His motivation for the trip was as much socialistic as it was Zionistic 460 As mayor of Burlington Sanders allowed a Chabad public menorah to be placed at city hall an action the ACLU contested He publicly inaugurated the Hanukkah menorah and performed the Jewish religious ritual of blessing Hanukkah candles 460 His early and strong support played a significant role in the now widespread public menorah celebrations around the globe 465 466 467 468 When asked about his Jewish heritage Sanders has said that he is proud to be Jewish 11 Sanders rarely speaks about religion 461 He describes himself as not particularly religious 11 and not actively involved with organized religion 461 A press package issued by his office states his religion as Jewish 469 He has said he believes in God but not necessarily in a traditional way I think everyone believes in God in their own ways he said To me it means that all of us are connected all of life is connected and that we are all tied together 461 470 In October 2015 on the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live Kimmel asked him You say you are culturally Jewish and you don t feel religious do you believe in God and do you think that s important to the people of the United States Sanders replied 471 I am who I am and what I believe in and what my spirituality is about is that we re all in this together That I think it is not a good thing to believe as human beings we can turn our backs on the suffering of other people and this is not Judaism this is what Pope Francis is talking about that we can t just worship billionaires and the making of more and more money Life is more than that In 2016 he disclosed that he had very strong religious and spiritual feelings adding My spirituality is that we are all in this together and that when children go hungry when veterans sleep out on the street it impacts me 472 Sanders does not regularly attend synagogue and he does not refrain from working on Rosh Hashanah as observant Jews do He has attended yahrzeit observances in memory of the deceased for the father of a friend and in 2015 attended a Tashlikh an atonement ceremony with the mayor of Lynchburg on the afternoon of Rosh Hashanah 460 According to Richard Sugarman his Jewish identity is certainly more ethnic and cultural than religious 473 His wife is Roman Catholic and he has often expressed admiration for Pope Francis saying that the leader of the Catholic Church is raising profound issues It is important that we listen to what he has said He has said he feels very close to Francis s economic teachings describing him as incredibly smart and brave 9 474 475 In April 2016 he accepted an invitation from Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo an aide close to Francis to speak at a Vatican conference on economic and environmental issues While at the Vatican he met briefly with Francis 476 477 In popular cultureIn December 1987 during his tenure as mayor of Burlington Sanders recorded a folk album We Shall Overcome with 30 Vermont musicians As he was not a skilled singer he performed his vocals in a talking blues style 478 479 Internet culture Owing to his two high profile campaigns in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primaries Sanders and his campaigns have generated many Internet memes and other online content The Facebook group Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash where users can submit memes focused around Sanders received significant attention in the 2016 primary season due to the at the time unique idea of a meme community focused entirely on a politician 480 481 During the 2020 primary season a still from a fundraising video in which Sanders tells the viewers I am once again asking for your financial support went viral online with numerous edits made of the frame 482 483 The day before Super Tuesday 2020 a video of the Twitch streamer Neekolul wearing a Bernie 2020 shirt and lip syncing the song Oki Doki Boomer also went viral 484 In 2021 a frame from the inauguration of Joe Biden showing Sanders seated in a folding chair wearing patterned mittens and a jacket reminiscent of the one in the I am once again asking meme went viral with the image captioned or edited into other images most commonly popular movie scenes 485 486 In film and television Sanders appeared in a cameo role in the 1988 comedy drama film Sweet Hearts Dance playing a man who distributes candy to young trick or treaters 487 In 1999 he acted in the film My X Girlfriend s Wedding Reception playing Rabbi Manny Shevitz In this role he mourned the Brooklyn Dodgers move to Los Angeles reflecting Sanders s own upbringing in Brooklyn 488 On February 6 2016 he was a guest star alongside Larry David on Saturday Night Live playing a Polish immigrant on a steamship that was sinking near the Statue of Liberty 489 In the DC Extended Universe film Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn one of the reasons Roman Sionis wants Harley Quinn dead is that she voted for Bernie 490 PublicationsWith Huck Gutman Outsider in the White House London Verso Books 2015 1997 ISBN 978 1 78478 418 8 OCLC 918986570 In Robert McChesney Russell Newman Ben Scott eds 2005 Why Americans Should Take Back the Media The Future of Media Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century Seven Stories Press ISBN 978 1 58322 679 7 OCLC 57574152 The Speech A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class New York Bold Type Books 2015 2011 ISBN 978 1 56858 554 3 LCCN 2011920256 OCLC 927456901 OL 25090387M Our Revolution A Future to Believe In Thomas Dunne Books 2016 ISBN 978 1 250 13292 5 OCLC 1026148801 Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution Henry Holt and Company 2017 ISBN 978 1 250 13890 3 OCLC 999379791 Where We Go from Here Two Years in the Resistance Gale 2018 ISBN 978 1 432 86916 8 OCLC 1126540640 It s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism Crown Books 2023 ISBN 978 0593238714 See alsoAmerican Left Electoral history of Bernie Sanders History of the socialist movement in the United States List of elected socialist mayors in the United States List of Jewish members of the United States Congress List of people who received an electoral vote in the United States Electoral College Spintharus berniesandersi Third party members of the United States House of RepresentativesExplanatory notes Caucus member 1995 present Affiliated non member Excludes three stepchildren whom he considers to be his own A long speech such as this is commonly known as a filibuster but because it did not block action it was not technically a filibuster under Senate rules 145 Thomas Frank s comments are mentioned in the following book review Lozada Carlos March 11 2016 The liberal war over the Obama legacy has already begun The Washington Post Retrieved March 17 2016 IPA ˌduːh s ˈhwuː diː ˌtʃuːp lit the one lighting the fires for change and unity in LushootseedReferences a b c d e McCrummen Stephanie February 5 2016 His Most Radical Move The Washington Post Archived from the original on February 5 2016 Retrieved January 21 2017 Gambino Lauren March 10 2019 Not the billionaires why small dollar donors are Democrats new powerhouse The Guardian ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved February 25 2020 a b Horowitz Jason July 24 2015 Bernie Sanders s 100 Brooklyn Roots Are as Unshakable as His Accent The New York Times Archived from the original on July 24 2015 Retrieved February 18 2016 Bernie Sanders Jewish Virtual Library American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise Retrieved February 18 2016 Bernie Sanders Biography Biography com A amp E Television Networks LLC Retrieved February 18 2016 Sanders Bernard 1941 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives Office of History and Preservation and the Office of the Historian of the United States Senate Retrieved February 18 2016 a b Season 4 Episode 1 The Impression Finding Your Roots October 3 2017 Retrieved February 9 2020 a b Bernie Sanders ancestral town in Poland kvells over his Iowa performance Jewish Telegraphic Agency February 2 2016 Retrieved February 3 2016 a b Eli Sanders Geni com Retrieved January 23 2016 New York Passenger Lists 1820 1957 immigration record Eliasz Gitman sailing from Antwerp mother Jetti Gutman citizenship in 1927 as Elias Sanders Chana Jas August 20 2015 Straight Outta Brooklyn by Way of Vermont The Bernie Sanders Story Tablet Retrieved January 20 2016 Soltys told them that at the time the Nazis invaded Poland Romek was the leader of Slopnice s Jewish community Which of course Larry said meant he was one of the first to be killed a b Gaudiano Nicole April 28 2015 OnPolitics 6 things to know about Bernie Sanders USA Today Archived from the original on July 27 2015 Retrieved July 19 2015 a b c d e f g h i j k Leibovich Mark January 21 2007 The Socialist Senator The New York Times Magazine Archived from the original on January 24 2007 Retrieved July 18 2015 Kelly Amita April 29 2015 5 Things You Should Know About Bernie Sanders NPR Retrieved July 19 2015 McCaskill Nolan D March 6 2016 Sanders My father s family was wiped out by Hitler Politico Retrieved April 15 2017 a b c d Sathish Madhuri August 28 2015 Bernie Sanders Quote About Hitler Winning An Election Is Powerful It s Also Misleading Bustle Archived from the original on January 21 2016 Feldmann Linda June 11 2015 Bernie Sanders I m Proud to be Jewish The Christian Science Monitor Retrieved June 13 2015 I m proud to be Jewish the Independent from Vermont and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination responded Thursday at a press breakfast hosted by the Monitor Though he added I m not particularly religious As a child Sanders said being Jewish taught him in a very deep way what politics is about A guy named Adolf Hitler won an election in 1932 the senator said He won an election and 50 million people died as a result of that election in World War II including 6 million Jews So what I learned as a little kid is that politics is in fact very important Keith Tamara November 2 2015 Sanders Could Be The First Jewish President But He Doesn t Like To Talk About It NPR Retrieved February 9 2020 a b c Stone Kurt F 2010 The Jews of Capitol Hill A Compendium of Jewish Congressional Members Lanham Maryland Scarecrow Press p 483 ISBN 978 0 8108 5731 5 OCLC 755001191 a b Bump Philip January 29 2016 The untold story of Bernie Sanders high school track star The Washington Post Retrieved January 29 2016 Felsenthal Carol May 4 2015 Bernie Sanders Found Socialism at the University of Chicago Chicago Retrieved July 18 2015 He graduated from Brooklyn s P S 197 and James Madison High School where he was captain of his high school track team Smith Nicola January 17 2016 Bernie ropes in British brother for showdown with Clinton London Sunday Times ProQuest 1757568267 Hamm Theodore July 7 2020 In Bernie s Brooklyn Political Revolution Was Mainstream Jacobin Retrieved July 25 2020 Chana Jas August 20 2015 Straight Outta Brooklyn by Way of Vermont The Bernie Sanders Story Tablet Magazine Nextbook Inc Retrieved March 15 2021 a b c Bernie Sanders Fast Facts CNN August 20 2015 Retrieved October 13 2015 a b c Talbot Margaret October 12 2015 The Populist Prophet The New Yorker Retrieved February 9 2020 a b c d Kampf Lassin Miles March 3 2019 What Chicago Taught Bernie Jacobin Retrieved March 4 2019 a b c d e Kruse Michael July 9 2015 Bernie Sanders Has a Secret Vermont his son and the hungry early years that made him the surging socialist he is today Politico Archived from the original on May 2 2020 Retrieved July 18 2015 After he graduated from James Madison High School in 1959 he went to Brooklyn College for a year before transferring to the University of Chicago where he joined the Congress of Racial Equality the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC the Student Peace Union and the Young People s Socialist League Nichols John July 6 2015 Bernie Sanders Speaks The Nation Archived from the original on July 17 2015 Retrieved July 19 2015 a b Murphy Tim February 11 2016 Here s What Bernie Sanders Actually Did in the Civil Rights Movement Mother Jones Retrieved February 11 2016 a b c Frizell Sam May 26 2015 The Radical Education of Bernie Sanders Time Retrieved February 9 2020 Perlstein Rick January 2015 A political education The University of Chicago Magazine Retrieved September 10 2015 Craven Jasper August 26 2015 Can Sanders civil rights experience at U of C translate on campaign trail Chicago Tribune ISSN 1085 6706 Archived from the original on January 8 2016 Retrieved February 9 2020 Booth Hannah September 16 2016 He wasn t terribly charismatic Bernie Sanders leads a civil rights protest in 1962 The Guardian Retrieved September 16 2016 Sanders Bernie August 25 2013 News August 25 Senate gov Archived from the original on February 6 2020 Retrieved June 17 2015 Skiba Katherine February 22 2016 Arrest photo of young activist Bernie Sanders emerges from Tribune archives Chicago Tribune Retrieved May 28 2018 Murphy Tim August 26 2015 Read 21 Year Old Bernie Sanders Manifesto on Sexual Freedom Mother Jones Retrieved September 10 2015 Vogel Steve April 14 2013 Bernie Sanders on frontline for veterans The Washington Post Retrieved September 30 2015 Parks Mary Alice August 31 2015 Bernie Sanders Applied for Conscientious Objector Status During Vietnam Campaign Confirms ABC News Retrieved September 30 2015 Inskeep Steve November 6 2015 Bernie Sanders On Being Jewish And A Democratic Socialist National Public Radio Archived from the original on November 6 2015 Schwarz Hunter April 30 2015 Bernie Sanders From hippie migrant to would be president The Washington Post Retrieved February 9 2020 Seitz Wald Alex May 28 2015 The 25 best things we learned from Bernie Sanders book MSNBC Retrieved February 9 2020 Sanders Bernard March 29 1969 Cuba the Other Side of the Story PDF Vermont Freeman Archived PDF from the original on March 10 2016 Retrieved March 10 2016 Sanders Bernie BernieSanders November 3 2018 I moved to Stannard when I first came to Vermont I ve visited 13 states in the last 3 weeks but coming home to Stannard was very special to me pic twitter com muk1Ps4mzh Tweet Retrieved December 17 2019 via Twitter Sen Bernard Sanders I Vt Roll Call Retrieved August 19 2015 Election Results Search 1974 Election Results sec state vt us Retrieved May 2 2015 Citation for votes total for Leahy and percentages calculated from spreadsheet Nelson Garrison September 14 2014 Jim Jeffords Reluctant Rebel Section 1974 Changing the Congressional Guard VTDigger Retrieved May 2 2015 a b c Guma Greg 1989 The People s Republic Vermont and the Sanders Revolution South Burlington Vermont New England Press pp 19 42 ISBN 978 0 933050 78 5 Siegel Lou June 27 1978 Vermont s Third Party No Longer Just a Fan Club Vanguard Press Retrieved March 1 2016 via Seven Days Socialists Launch Campaign to Get Candidates on Ballot Rutland Herald July 11 1980 p 9 Archived from the original on December 9 2020 Retrieved November 29 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Arena Profile Sen Bernie Sanders Politico Archived from the original on July 23 2016 Retrieved August 19 2015 Bernard Sanders 1979 Eugene V Debs Trade Unionist Socialist Revolutionary 1855 1926 Introduction Video Archived from the original on December 21 2021 Retrieved July 13 2015 Liberty Unionite to Run For Mayor of Burlington The Burlington Free Press November 9 1980 p 19 Archived from the original on December 13 2020 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link UVM Pair to Work for Independent Coalition The Burlington Free Press December 13 1980 p 3 Archived from the original on December 11 2020 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Sanders Opens Campaign Office The Burlington Free Press February 18 1981 p 14 Archived from the original on November 30 2020 via Newspapers com Citizens Party Fails To Nominate Candidate The Burlington Free Press January 16 1981 p 2 Archived from the original on November 30 2020 via Newspapers com Bernie s Red Vermont The New Republic June 13 2019 Archived from the original on November 1 2020 Retrieved December 8 2020 a href Template Cite magazine html title Template Cite magazine cite magazine a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Board to Conduct Mayoral Recount Friday The Burlington Free Press March 10 1981 p 11 Archived from the original on December 3 2020 via Newspapers com Clendinen Dudley March 2 1982 It s New Politics vs Old in Vermont As Mayor Strives to Oust Alderman The New York Times Archived from the original on July 9 2018 Margolis Jon March 15 1983 Bernie of Burlington The New Republic Archived from the original on September 2 2019 Gilson Rejects Campaign Fund Limit The Burlington Free Press February 2 1983 p 17 Archived from the original on August 26 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Sanders will make it official Bennington Banner December 3 1982 p 16 Archived from the original on August 26 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Sanders Announces He s Running Again Barre Montpelier Times Argus December 3 1982 p 1 Archived from the original on August 26 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Citizens Party Endorses Sanders The Burlington Free Press January 23 1983 p 14 Archived from the original on June 24 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Massive Turnout Keeps Mayor Sanders in Office The Burlington Free Press March 2 1983 p 3 Archived from the original on September 1 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Mayor Sanders to run again Brattleboro Reformer December 7 1984 p 2 Archived from the original on August 26 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Sanders Makes It Official Rutland Herald December 8 1984 p 6 Archived from the original on August 26 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link City Elections At a glance The Burlington Free Press March 6 1985 p 2 Archived from the original on June 10 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Sanders Announces for Fourth Term Says He Has Energy and Enthusiasm Rutland Herald December 2 1986 p 1 Archived from the original on September 27 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link 1987 election results The Burlington Free Press March 4 1985 p 11 Archived from the original on June 10 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link Sanders Proclaims 87 Race Will Be His Last Mayoral Bid The Burlington Free Press December 7 1987 p 21 Archived from the original on June 10 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link WSJ Sanders Profile The Wall Street Journal Archived from the original on March 7 2014 Retrieved January 18 2013 Banks Russell October 5 2015 Bernie Sanders the Socialist Mayor The Atlantic Retrieved January 21 2016 Self Styled Socialist Takes Oath as Mayor of Burlington Vermont Boston Globe Associated Press April 7 1981 Daybell Morgan July 1 2009 Senator Bernie Sanders Vermont Progressive Party Archived from the original on April 7 2020 Retrieved June 8 2015 a b Dreier Peter Clavel Pierre June 4 2015 Bernie s Burlington What Kind of Mayor Was Bernie Sanders Huffington Post Archived from the original on April 3 2019 Retrieved August 6 2015 Gram Dave Thomas Ken May 26 2015 Bernie Sanders kicks off 2016 bid from Clinton s left The Bellingham Herald Associated Press Archived from the original on February 8 2016 Retrieved December 9 2015 a b Reynolds David 1997 Democracy Unbound Progressive Challenges to the Two Party System South End Press p 162 ISBN 978 0 89608 563 3 Third Political Parties in America C SPAN February 3 1989 34 27 minutes in Retrieved November 16 2018 Markus Bethania Palma August 11 2015 The Bernie effect Noam Chomsky says Sanders will push the Democratic Party to the left The Raw Story Retrieved August 21 2015 Chomsky Speech at Burlington City Hall 1985 Archived from the original on December 21 2021 Retrieved August 21 2015 via YouTube Bernie Speaks with the Community Center for Media and Democracy September 27 2011 Retrieved February 10 2016 Murphy Tim November 10 2015 I Can t Stop Watching These Old Clips of Bernie Sanders Cable Access Show Mother Jones Retrieved February 10 2016 Davis Mark September 17 2014 Bernie Sanders Recorded a Folk Album No Punchline Required Seven Days Retrieved February 10 2016 Kaczynski Andrew June 25 2015 Watch This 1980s Bernie Sanders Public Access Show On Recording His Folk Album BuzzFeed Retrieved February 10 2016 McCarthy Colman April 1 1989 Bernie Sanders Socialism via www washingtonpost com Press Release He s a Rock The American Presidency Project www presidency ucsb edu Retrieved February 18 2020 10 Great Places to Live 2013 kiplinger com July 25 2013 Cillizza Chris August 20 2015 Bernie Sanders The Uncola of American politics The Washington Post Friends honor Sanders as he says goodbye The Burlington Free Press April 4 1989 p 1 Archived from the original on January 22 2021 Retrieved December 8 2020 via Newspapers com a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link 1988 U S House General Election Vermont Secretary of State Retrieved May 18 2022 Vermont State archives General Election Results PDF Archived from the original PDF on December 20 2016 Retrieved March 31 2016 a b Pertman Adam November 11 1990 The Times Caught Up To Vermont Socialist Boston Globe Archived from the original on November 12 2013 Retrieved February 14 2020 Daly Christopher B November 11 1990 For Vermont s Sanders Victory Followed Long Path First Socialist Elected to House in Decades Gets Attention With Frank Talk of Class Conflict The Washington Post Retrieved March 18 2017 Carle Robin H ed May 12 1995 Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 8 1994 Archived from the original on November 14 2015 a b Qiu Linda February 23 2016 Is Bernie Sanders a Democrat PolitiFact Retrieved October 17 2016 Taibbi Matt August 25 2005 Inside the Horror Show That Is Congress Rolling Stone Retrieved February 14 2020 Who should pay Brattleboro Reformer September 23 2008 Archived from the original on May 29 2015 Statement of Congressman Sanders on 7 16 2003 regarding Congressman Sanders Questioning of Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan July 16 2003 Archived from the original on September 26 2006 Retrieved August 29 2010 via Web archive org Bernie Sanders Alan Greenspan July 15 2003 Monetary Policy Report Motion Picture House Financial Services Committee C SPAN Event occurs at 1 29 12 Retrieved December 18 2019 Andrews Edmund L October 23 2008 Greenspan Concedes Error on Regulation The New York Times Archived from the original on October 24 2008 Retrieved February 14 2020 Naylor Brian October 24 2008 Greenspan Admits Free Market Ideology Flawed NPR Retrieved January 18 2016 Reynolds Tom May 6 1992 Cancer Data Bases Expanding Journal of the National Cancer Institute 84 9 839 841 doi 10 1093 jnci 84 11 839 PMID 1593651 Retrieved January 22 2020 Legislative Search Results February 28 1992 Retrieved January 22 2020 Legislative Search Results October 24 1992 Retrieved January 22 2020 a b c Qiu Linda July 10 2015 Did Bernie Sanders vote against background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases PolitiFact Retrieved August 31 2015 Final Vote Results for Roll Call 614 US House of Representatives Office of the Clerk of the U S House of Representatives Retrieved November 17 2014 Qiu Linda July 10 2015 Did Bernie Sanders vote against background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases PolitiFact Retrieved May 4 2020 Clinton Hillary 2017 What Happened Simon amp Schuster p 186 ISBN 978 1 5011 7556 5 Capehart Jonathan February 25 2016 Hillary Clinton on superpredator remarks I shouldn t have used those words The Washington Post Retrieved February 14 2020 Cabaniss Will September 2 2015 Where do Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders stand on the death penalty PolitiFact Retrieved February 26 2016 Congressional Record Volume 140 Issue 39 Wednesday April 13 1994 Congressional Record Volume 140 Number 39 Government Publishing Office April 13 1994 Retrieved December 18 2019 a b Kristian Bonnie February 9 2016 Bernie Sanders is not nearly as progressive as you think he is The Week Retrieved February 11 2019 H R 728 104th Local Government Law Enforcement Block Grants Act of 1995 govtrack us Civic Impulse Retrieved February 11 2019 HR 424 Minimum Sentences for Gun Crimes National Key Vote votesmart org Vote Smart Retrieved February 11 2019 Final Vote Results for Roll Call 534 Office of the Clerk of the U S House of Representatives Retrieved July 18 2007 Bradner Eric July 5 2015 Bernie Sanders wants to bring us to the middle on guns CNN Retrieved July 6 2015 a b c Lee Michelle Ye Hee January 26 2016 Analysis Everything you wanted to know about Bernie Sanders s record on guns The Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved June 4 2018 Tau Byron May 7 2015 Rand Paul Bernie Sanders Revel in NSA Ruling The Guardian Retrieved August 19 2015 Final Vote Results for Roll Call 398 Office of the Clerk of the U S House of Representatives Retrieved May 19 2015 Hudson David L Jr May 25 2004 Patriot Act Libraries and First Amendment First Amendment Center Retrieved May 19 2015 Sanders Bernie May 7 2015 Bernie Sanders It s Time To End Orwellian Surveillance of Every American Time Retrieved July 19 2015 Sanders Freedom to Read Language Dropped from Spending Bill American Library Association Washington Office Newsline 14 107 November 4 2005 Archived from the original on June 4 2006 Final Vote Results for Roll Call 342 Office of the Clerk of the U S House of Representatives Retrieved October 13 2014 Johnsen Gregory D January 16 2014 60 Words And A War Without End The Untold Story Of The Most Dangerous Sentence In U S History Buzzfeed Retrieved October 13 2014 Sanders opposition to the Iraq War was more complicated than he presents NBC News Retrieved December 19 2022 Haltiwanger John Bernie Sanders revisits his vote against the Iraq War which started 16 years ago today and says much of what he feared came true Business Insider Retrieved December 19 2022 Kusumi John 2008 Monster Versus Monster the Democratic Race Nolanchart H R 728 To withdraw normal trade relations treatment from the products of the People s Republic of China congress gov February 25 2005 Retrieved February 26 2020 Transcript for May 22 Guest Howard Dean Chairman of the Democratic Party Meet the Press NBC News May 22 2005 Retrieved August 1 2011 Krieg Gregory July 9 2015 Watch Young Senator Barack Obama Campaign for Bernie Sanders in 2006 mic com Retrieved July 20 2015 Back in March 2006 the future president traveled to Vermont to headline a rally and fundraiser for then Rep Bernie Sanders an independent running for Senate and Pete Welch a Democrat seeking election to Sanders s House seat Taylor Jessica June 24 2015 This Quirky New Hampshire Law Might Keep Bernie Sanders Off The Ballot NPR Retrieved July 20 2015 He did appear on the Democratic primary ballot in Vermont for the Senate in both 2006 and 2012 winning their primary but he declined the nomination both times so he could run as an independent Nichols John May 26 2015 Don t Underestimate Me Bernie Sanders Knows a Thing or Two About Winning The Nation Archived from the original on July 17 2015 Retrieved July 20 2015 When Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords a Republican who turned independent in his last term announced that he was stepping down in 2006 Sanders jumped into a race that a number of Democrats would have liked to run He won the Democratic primary and then declined the nomination mounting an audacious independent run that was not supposed to be easy Ring Wilson November 7 2006 Sanders Welch are winners in Vermont Boston Globe Associated Press Retrieved January 25 2007 Vermont Election Results Decision 2012 NBC News December 2 2011 Retrieved April 21 2013 Vermont Secretary of State November 2018 Vermont electoral results 2018 PDF State of Vermont Archived from the original PDF on January 8 2019 Retrieved February 4 2019 Legislative Search Results Retrieved January 21 2020 Legislative Search Results Retrieved January 21 2020 Legislative Search Results Retrieved January 21 2020 Dovere Edward Isaac March 12 2016 Sanders had big ideas but little impact on Capitol Hill Politico Retrieved June 4 2018 Steinhauer Jennifer March 14 2016 Via Legislative Side Doors Bernie Sanders Won Modest Victories The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on March 14 2016 Retrieved June 4 2018 Lazarus Jeffrey April 7 2016 Hillary Clinton was a more effective lawmaker than Bernie Sanders The Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved June 4 2018 Legislative Search Results Retrieved January 22 2020 a b c Levitz Eric January 21 2020 Hillary Clinton Won t Commit to Endorsing Sanders If He Wins Nomination New York Vox Media Retrieved January 22 2020 Cochrane Emily Friedman Lisa August 7 2022 What s in the Climate Tax and Health Care Package The New York Times Retrieved August 12 2022 Kiely Eugene March 7 2016 Clinton Sanders Bailout Brawl FactCheck org FactCheck org Retrieved June 4 2018 Carroll Lauren March 7 2016 In Michigan Hillary Clinton says Bernie Sanders was against the auto bailout PolitiFact Retrieved June 4 2018 Legislative Search Results February 6 2009 Retrieved January 22 2020 a b Robb Greg January 12 2016 Audit the Fed bill fails despite support from Paul Sanders MarketWatch Retrieved December 16 2017 a b Nelson Steven January 12 2016 Democrats Kill Rand Paul s Audit the Fed Bill Though Sanders Votes Yes U S News amp World Report Archived from the original on January 12 2016 Retrieved February 9 2020 a b Schroeder Peter January 12 2016 Sanders to vote for Paul s Audit the Fed bill TheHill Retrieved December 16 2017 Senator Sanders Filibuster C SPAN December 10 2010 Retrieved June 1 2015 Memoli Michael A December 10 2010 Sen Bernie Sanders ends filibuster Los Angeles Times Retrieved August 1 2011 Burleigh Nina October 25 2011 Bernie Sanders war on the banks Salon Retrieved July 19 2015 Condon Stephanie December 10 2010 Bernie Sanders Holds Old School Filibuster Against Obama GOP Tax Cut Deal Retrieved May 14 2018 Beutler Brian December 16 2010 House Passes Tax Cut Plan Obama To Sign Talking Points Memo Retrieved December 17 2010 Bedard Paul March 15 2011 Sanders s 8 5 Hour Tax Cut Filibuster Gets a Book U S News amp World Report Retrieved May 15 2016 Adibi Ida July 30 2017 Bernie s Vote On Sanctions Was About Protecting The Iran Deal From Trump HuffPost US bill on Russia sanctions prompts German Austrian outcry Deutsche Welle June 15 2017 Sanders Bernie June 15 2017 Sanders Statement on Iran and Russia Sanctions Press release Washington D C United States Senate Archived from the original on November 9 2020 Retrieved August 27 2019 a b Detrow Scott December 13 2018 Senate votes to end U S support for war in Yemen rebuking Trump and Saudi Arabia NPR Retrieved January 1 2019 a b Caldwell Leigh Ann November 28 2018 Senate advances bill to end U S involvement in Yemen war after inadequate briefing on Saudi Arabia NBC News Retrieved January 1 2019 a b Ward Alex November 28 2018 The Senate is moving closer to ending US support for the war in Yemen Vox Retrieved January 1 2019 Senate Joint Resolution 54 of the 115th Congress A joint resolution to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen that have not been authorized by Congress Congress gov December 19 2018 Retrieved January 1 2019 Davis Julie Hirschfeld Schmitt Eric December 13 2018 Senate votes to end aid for Yemen fight over Khashoggi killing and Saudis war aims The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Archived from the original on December 13 2018 Retrieved January 1 2019 Roll Call Vote 115th Congress 2nd Session Senate gov December 13 2018 Retrieved December 20 2019 Vote Number 266 Sonmez Felicia Dawsey Josh Demirjian Karoun April 16 2019 Trump vetoes resolution to end U S participation in Yemen s civil war The Washington Post Retrieved January 21 2020 Vales Leinz May 4 2017 Thousands will die if House bill becomes law Bernie Sanders says CNN Jacobson Louis June 27 2017 Bernie Sanders projection of thousands of deaths from lost health coverage is well supported PolitiFact Retrieved June 29 2017 Kurtzleben Danielle September 14 2017 Here s What s In Bernie Sanders Medicare For All Bill NPR Retrieved September 17 2017 Older Americans Act Sanders Senate gov Press release May 23 2013 Archived from the original on November 9 2020 Retrieved July 4 2015 a b c Kim Seung Min June 19 2015 Sanders and immigration It s complicated Politico Retrieved June 4 2018 a b Lachman Samantha July 22 2015 Bernie Sanders Introduces 15 Minimum Wage Bill As Federal Contract Workers Strike HuffPost Retrieved August 18 2015 Kampf Lassin Miles May 9 2018 Bernie Sanders Has a Sweeping Plan to Expand Union Rights and Workplace Democracy In These Times Retrieved May 12 2018 Sanders Bernie May 24 2017 Bernie Sanders Trump s budget is immoral CNN Retrieved October 25 2017 Sanders Bernie November 13 2017 Bernie Sanders We must end global oligarchy CNN Retrieved November 13 2017 Stewart Emily September 5 2018 Bernie Sanders s BEZOS bill takes aim at how Amazon pays workers Vox Retrieved September 14 2018 Santus Rex October 2 2018 Jeff Bezos just caved to activists and Bernie Sanders and raised Amazon s minimum wage to 15 Vice Retrieved October 4 2018 What Mr Bezos today has done is not only enormously important for Amazon s hundreds of thousands of employees It could well be and I think it will be a shot heard around the world Herb Jeramy June 5 2014 Sanders McCain strike VA deal Politico Retrieved January 22 2020 Legislative Search Results Congress of the United States June 11 2014 Retrieved January 22 2020 Legislative Search Results Congress of the United States August 7 2014 Retrieved January 22 2020 Trudo Hanna Gass Nick March 17 2016 Sanders I wouldn t have picked Garland for Supreme Court Politico a b Carney Jordain March 23 2017 Sanders to oppose Gorsuch s nomination The Hill Carlsen Audrey April 7 2017 How Senators Voted on the Gorsuch Confirmation The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved May 14 2018 Knapp Emily Griffiths Brent McClure Jon Kavanaugh Senate confirmation vote count Here s how senators voted POLITICO Retrieved February 26 2023 U S Senate U S Senate Roll Call Votes 116th Congress 2nd Session www senate gov Retrieved February 26 2023 U S Senate U S Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress 2nd Session www senate gov Retrieved February 26 2023 Cooper Anderson October 15 2015 Bernie Sanders criticized for leadership in VA committee Anderson Cooper 360 CNN Retrieved December 18 2019 a b Needham Vicki December 12 2014 Senate Democrats lock in key committee memberships The Hill Retrieved July 19 2015 Resnikoff Ned February 19 2015 Bernie Sanders mulling presidential run adopts novel stance on deficit Al Jazeera Retrieved March 25 2015 Staff Committee Assignments sanders senate gov US Senate Retrieved February 11 2021 Majority Leader Schumer Announces Senate Democratic Committee Memberships For The 118th Congress Democrats senate gov Retrieved January 29 2023 a b Rebuild the Dream Nation Books April 3 2012 p 27 ISBN 978 1 56858 715 8 Caucus Members Congressional Progressive Caucus Retrieved March 29 2021 Members Afterschool Alliance Retrieved April 17 2018 a b Easley Jason August 2 2011 Americans Love Socialism Bernie Sanders Is The 3rd Most Popular US Senator Politics USA Archived from the original on December 29 2014 Retrieved July 18 2015 Ackerman Seth June 29 2015 Give the People What They Want Bernie Sanders signature issues aren t white issues Jacobin ISSN 2158 2602 Archived from the original on July 21 2015 Forward 50 2015 The Forward November 11 2015 Retrieved November 11 2015 a b Wofford Taylor November 24 2015 Bernie Sanders Is America s Most Popular Senator New Survey Says Newsweek Retrieved December 18 2019 Timm Trevor March 17 2017 Everyone loves Bernie Sanders Except it seems the Democratic party The Guardian Retrieved December 18 2019 Wofford Taylor April 28 2016 Bernie Sanders is America s Most Popular Senator Mitch McConnell its Least Newsweek Retrieved September 17 2016 a b Easley Jonathan April 18 2017 Poll Bernie Sanders country s most popular active politician The Hill Retrieved April 20 2017 Easley Jonathan August 24 2017 Poll McConnell the country s least popular politician The Hill Levitz Eric February 19 2020 Sanders Considered Primarying Obama in 2012 Report New York Retrieved February 23 2020 Joseph Cameron November 18 2013 Bernie Sanders won t rule out presidential bid touts Elizabeth Warren The Hill News Communications Retrieved January 25 2020 Eidelson Josh November 27 2013 Bernie Sanders Why I might run in 2016 Salon Retrieved January 25 2020 Inskeep Steve December 15 2014 Warning Shot Sen Warren On Fighting Banks And Her Political Future 90 9 WBUR News NPR Retrieved January 25 2020 A Look Back at Bernie Sanders Campaign One Year Later ABC News a b Kane Paul Rucker Philip April 30 2015 An unlikely contender Sanders takes on billionaire class in 2016 bid The Washington Post Retrieved April 30 2015 a b c Rappeport Alan April 29 2015 Bernie Sanders Announces He Is Running for President The New York Times Archived from the original on April 30 2015 Retrieved April 30 2015 Cogan Marin April 30 2015 Bernie Sanders Is Officially Running for President That Doesn t Mean You Can Ask Him About Hillary Clinton Intelligencer New York Retrieved July 18 2015 Pointdujour Prisca May 2 2015 Elizabeth Warren praises Bernie Sanders prez bid Boston Herald Retrieved May 3 2015 Kamisar Ben June 19 2015 Ready for Warren Endorses Sanders The Hill Retrieved February 24 2016 Blake Aaron July 24 2016 Here are the latest most damaging things in the DNC s leaked emails The Washington Post a b Lee MJ Merica Dan Zeleny Jeff July 12 2016 Bernie Sanders endorses Hillary Clinton CNN Retrieved May 15 2018 Bradner Eric April 30 2015 Sanders doesn t want billionaires backing CNN Retrieved May 4 2015 Thomas Ken May 1 2015 Sanders raises 1 5M after announcing presidential bid Yahoo News Associated Press Archived from the original on July 22 2015 Retrieved July 19 2015 Sanders raises 33M in final quarter 73M total for 2015 Politico January 2 2016 Retrieved January 2 2016 Blumenthal Paul January 31 2015 Bernie Sanders Small Donor Fundraising Continues To Set Records HuffPost Corasaniti Nick May 18 2015 Seeking the Presidency Bernie Sanders Becomes Facebook Royalty Through Quirky Sharing The New York Times Archived from the original on May 18 2015 Retrieved May 21 2015 Lerer Lisa July 30 2015 More than 100 000 people participated in a mega grassroots Bernie Sanders event Business Insider Retrieved August 19 2015 Tesfaye Sofia June 16 2015 America is feeling the Bern Bernie Sanders draws overflow crowds and surges in the polls Salon com Retrieved June 16 2015 Wagner John June 15 2015 Meet the people coming to see Bernie Sanders in Iowa The Washington Post Retrieved June 16 2015 Keith Tamara June 15 2015 Bernie Sanders Stunned By Large Crowds Showing Up For Him NPR Retrieved June 16 2015 Jacobs Ben June 25 2015 Bernie Sanders closes on Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire Democrats poll The Guardian Retrieved July 2 2015 Seitz Wald Alex July 1 2015 Bernie Sanders draws biggest crowd of any 2016 candidate yet MSNBC Retrieved July 2 2015 Reilly Mollie July 1 2015 Bernie Sanders Draws His Biggest Crowd Yet In Progressive Stronghold HuffPost Retrieved July 2 2015 Wagner John July 19 2015 Bernie Sanders draws his biggest crowd yet in Arizona of all places The Washington Post Retrieved July 21 2015 Connelly Joel August 8 2015 Bernie Sanders draws 15 000 people at UW state s biggest political crowd since 2010 Obama visit Seattle Post Intelligencer Archived from the original on August 9 2015 Retrieved August 9 2015 Cillizza Chris August 10 2015 This Bernie Sanders crowd shot should make Hillary Clinton a little jittery The Washington Post Retrieved August 10 2015 Mataconis Doug December 22 2015 How Saturday debates protect Hillary Clinton The Christian Science Monitor Retrieved December 23 2015 Sargent Greg February 3 2016 It s on Looks like we re getting four more Democratic debates The Washington Post Retrieved March 30 2016 Yen Hope June 7 2016 Delegate math Clinton wins and how AP counts delegates Associated Press Retrieved June 4 2018 Merica Dan Stelter Brian May 24 2016 Clinton declines to debate Sanders in California CNN Retrieved November 16 2016 Sullivan Margaret September 9 2015 Public Editor s Journal Has The Times Dismissed Bernie Sanders The New York Times Archived from the original on September 23 2015 Debenedetti Gabriel Gass Nick September 10 2015 Bernie Sanders overtakes Hillary Clinton in Iowa Politico Retrieved September 11 2015 Report Top News Shows Give Trump 234 Minutes Sanders 10 Minutes Democracy Now December 15 2015 6 06 Archived from the original on December 16 2015 Retrieved December 15 2015 span, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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