Bernard "Bernie" Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He is a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. A self-described democratic socialist, he favors policies similar to those of social democratic parties in Europe, particularly those instituted by the Nordic countries. He caucuses with the Democratic Party and has been the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee since January 2015.
After settling in Vermont in 1968, Sanders ran unsuccessful third party campaigns for Governor and U.S. Senator in the early to mid-1970s. As an independent, Sanders was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont's most populous city, in 1981. He was reelected three times before being elected to represent Vermont's at-large congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in 1990. He served as a congressman for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2012, he was reelected by a large margin, capturing almost 71% of the popular vote.
Sanders is known as a leading progressive voice on issues such as income inequality, universal healthcare, parental leave, climate change, LGBT rights, and campaign finance reform. He rose to national prominence following his 2010 filibuster against the proposed extension of the Bush tax cuts. He is also outspoken on civil rights and civil liberties, and has been particularly critical of mass surveillance policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act, as well as racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. He has long been critical of U.S. foreign policy, and was an early and outspoken opponent of the Iraq War.
Senator Sanders believes in expanding the role of the federal government in order to better serve the people. He advocates for a single-payer, Medicare for all healthcare system, tuition free public college, and large infrastructure investment. He has proposed paying for these programs by imposing additional payroll taxes, a tax on financial transactions in the stock market, and closing loopholes for large corporations. Senator Sanders is against the metadata collecting provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act.
Bernie Sanders encourages a mostly isolationist foreign policy. He is strongly opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, claiming that it is not a fair deal and American workers suffer at the hands of free trade. He also supports the Iranian Nuclear Deal, claiming it will prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon.
Senator Sanders has proposed reducing military spending to fund many of his social programs. He came out very strongly against the Iraq War in 2003, and continues to oppose almost all military intervention, with the notable exceptions of the intervention in Kosovo in the 1990s and in many cases the War in Afghanistan. He is against deploying ground troops into the fight against ISIS and wishes to build a Sunni Arab coalition to defeat ISIS.
Senator Sanders supports a path to legal status for those here illegally, and has strongly denounced Mr. Trump and Sen. Cruz's rhetoric, calling it dangerous. He does, however, not support increasing the amount of legal immigration, citing a need to provide jobs to Americans first.
See Bernie Sanders' Stance on All The Issues »
