Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders
Sanders in 2023
United States Senator from Vermont
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2007 Serving with Peter Welch
Preceded by	Jim Jeffords
Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2023
Preceded by	Patty Murray
Chair of the Senate Democratic Outreach Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2017
Leader	Chuck Schumer
Vice Chair	Catherine Cortez Masto
Preceded by	Amy Klobuchar[a] (Steering and Outreach)
Chair of the Senate Budget Committee
In office February 3, 2021 – January 3, 2023
Preceded by	Mike Enzi
Succeeded by	Sheldon Whitehouse
Chair of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee
In office January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2015
Preceded by	Patty Murray
Succeeded by	Johnny Isakson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont's at-large district
In office January 3, 1991 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Peter Plympton Smith
Succeeded by	Peter Welch
37th Mayor of Burlington
In office April 6, 1981 – April 4, 1989
Preceded by	Gordon Paquette
Succeeded by	Peter Clavelle
Chair of the Liberty Union Party
In office 1971–1977
Personal details
Born	Bernard Sanders (1941-09-08) September 8, 1941 (age 82) New York City, U.S.
Political party	Independent (1978–present)
Other political affiliations	Democratic[b] (2015–2016, 2019–2020) Vermont Progressive[c] (1981–present) Liberty Union (1970–1977)
Spouses	Deborah Shiling ​ ​ (m. 1964; div. 1966)​ Jane O'Meara ​ (m. 1988)​
Children	1[d]
Relatives	Larry Sanders (brother)
Education	Brooklyn College University of Chicago (BA)
Occupation	Politician activist author
Signature
Website	Senate website Campaign website
Bernie Sanders's voice Bernie Sanders speaks out against the Iraq War Recorded October 9, 2002

This article is part of a series about Bernie Sanders
Political positions Electoral history Early life Early career University of Chicago sit-ins Mayor of Burlington Mayoral career U.S. Representative from Vermont's at-large district Representative career CPC Elections 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 U.S. Senator from Vermont Senate career Elections 2006 2012 2018 Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act 2010 Tax Relief Act filibuster Veterans Choice Act Stop BEZOS Act Yemen War Powers Resolution Workplace Democracy Act Presidential campaigns 2016 endorsements "America" primaries convention 2020 endorsements primaries Published works We Shall Overcome Outsider in the White House The Speech Our Revolution Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution Where We Go from Here It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
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Bernard Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the senior United States senator from Vermont. Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history but has a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career and sought the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, coming second in both campaigns. He is often seen as a leader of the U.S. progressive movement.

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 was 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 Vermont's Class 1 seat since Whig Solomon Foot was elected in 1850.

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 Leahy's retirement from the Senate.

Sanders was a major candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, receiving the second most votes in each. 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.^[1] 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. He has since emerged as a close ally of Biden.^[2][3]

Sanders is credited with influencing a leftward shift in the Democratic Party after his 2016 presidential campaign. An advocate of progressive policies, he is known for his opposition to economic inequality and neoliberalism, and support for workers' self-management. On domestic policy, he supports labor rights, universal and single-payer healthcare, paid parental leave, tuition-free tertiary education, an ambitious Green New Deal to create jobs addressing climate change, and worker control of production through cooperatives, unions, and democratic public enterprises. 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 and contrasted^[4] his politics to left-wing populism and the New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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