About
Bernard “Bernie” Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential election.
Political Career
Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. A self-described democratic socialist, he favors policy proposals similar to those of mainstream social democratic governments in Europe, particularly in Scandinavia. He caucuses with the Democratic Party and has been the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee since January 2015.
After unsuccessful candidacies for governor and senator of Vermont, Sanders was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont’s most populous city, in 1981. He was reelected to three more two-year mayoral terms 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 succeed the retiring Republican-turned-independent Jim Jeffords in the U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2012, he was reelected by a large margin, capturing almost 71% of the popular vote.
Since his election to the Senate, Sanders has emerged as a leading progressive voice on issues like income inequality, climate change, and campaign finance reform. He rose to national prominence on the heels of his 2010 filibuster of the proposed extension of the Bush-era tax rates for the wealthy. Sanders is also outspoken on civil liberties issues, and has been particularly critical of mass surveillance policies such as the Patriot Act.
Sanders announced his intentions to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for President on April 30, 2015, in an address on the Capitol lawn. His campaign was officially launched on May 26 in Burlington. Unlike the other presidential candidates, Sanders will not pursue funding through a Super PAC, instead focusing on small individual donations. His campaign events have been drawing “overflow crowds” around the country.
Online History
Even though Bernie Sanders has not been (as of posting this information) covered strongly in the news, the popular online site Reddit has shown a large amount of commentary and support for Bernie Sanders. The first 200 results for Bernie Sanders on Reddit all have over 2000 upvotes and the first 25 results have over 5000 upvotes, and notably all the top 200 results for Bernie Sanders on Reddit are overwhelmingly supportive of him and his policies. Unlike other candidates, Bernie has notably done an AMA on Reddit as well with overwhelmingly positive reception.