In the 2016
presidential campaign
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
, Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders
Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...
sought the
Democratic Party's nomination in a field of six major candidates and was the runner up with 46% of the pledged delegates behind former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
, who won the contest with 54%. Sanders, the junior
United States senator
The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...
and former
Representative
Representative may refer to:
Politics
* Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people
* House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities
* Legislator, som ...
from
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
, began with an informal announcement on April 30, 2015,
and a formal announcement that he planned to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States on May 26, 2015, in
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...
. Sanders had been considered a potential candidate for president since at least September 2014. Though he had previously run as an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
, he routinely caucused with the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
, as many of his views align with Democrats.
Running as a Democrat made it easier to participate in
debates
Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...
and get his name on state ballots.
Sanders's chief competitor for the nomination was
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
, a former secretary of state. Sanders drew large crowds to his speaking events
and his
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...
and
progressive politics won him particular support among Americans under 40. He performed strongly with white voters, but consistently trailed Clinton by 30 or more percentage points among black voters; polls showed a close race among Hispanic voters.
Sanders focused on
income
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
and
wealth inequality
The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or heterogeneity in economics, economic heterogeneity.
The distribution of wealth differs from the i ...
, which he argued is eroding the American middle class, and on
campaign finance reform. Unlike most other major presidential candidates, Sanders eschewed an unlimited
super PAC, instead choosing to receive most of his funding from direct individual campaign donations.
In September 2015, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported that the campaign had received one million individual donations, becoming the first in 2015 to reach that threshold.
Sanders raised $20,000,000 in the month of January 2016, $5,000,000 more than Clinton during the same time period, with an average donation of $27.
Sanders frequently mentioned this $27 figure on the campaign trail as proof of his grassroots support.
Following the final primary election (the
District of Columbia's, on June 14), Clinton became the presumptive Democratic nominee. Sanders did then endorse Clinton, and said he would work with her to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee,
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
.
On June 16, Sanders gave a live online speech to his supporters, saying, "The political revolution continues".
On July 12, Sanders officially endorsed Clinton at a unity rally with her in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...
.
On July 22, 2016, various emails stolen by one or more hackers operating under the pseudonym "Guccifer 2.0 from the
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
(DNC), the governing body of the Democratic Party, were
leaked and published, revealing bias against the Sanders campaign on the part of the Committee and its chair,
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Deborah Wasserman Schultz (née Wasserman; born September 27, 1966) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from , first elected to Congress in 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a former chair of the Democrat ...
. Schultz subsequently resigned as DNC chair and was replaced by
Donna Brazile
Donna Lease Brazile (; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, ...
, who was also implicated in the leaks and apologized to Sanders and his supporters. In the
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
roll-call vote on July 26, 2016, Sanders received 1,865 votes (39% of the vote), which consisted of 1,848 pledged delegates won in primary and caucus contests (46% of the total) and 17
superdelegate
In American politics, a superdelegate is an unpledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is seated automatically and chooses for themselves for whom they vote. These Democratic Party superdelegates (who make up slightly under 15 ...
s (4%). After the roll call, Sanders put forward a motion to formally nominate Clinton, which passed by
voice vote
In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...
. Although Sanders lost, he and the political movement his campaign created succeeded in moving the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
platform as a whole to the left, including support for a $15
minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...
,
marijuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
legalization, the abolition of
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, and
criminal justice reform
Criminal justice reform addresses structural issues in Criminal justice, criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Criminal justice reform can take place at any poi ...
.
Background
Sanders's previous political successes were in Vermont.
He has been politically active nearly his entire adult life. While in college, Sanders protested against police brutality, led a weeks-long sit-in against housing segregation, and worked as an organizer for the
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission ...
.
In 1963, he travelled to Washington D.C. to attend the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...
.
As mayor of Burlington, Sanders played a prominent role in building support in Vermont for
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
's presidential campaigns in
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
and
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
.
In a November 2013 interview, Sanders laid out several reasons for mounting his own presidential run, including
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
(current
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
),
economic inequality
There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...
, frustration with the ''
Citizens United
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
'' Supreme Court decision, and the importance of maintaining public programs like
Medicare and
Medicaid
Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...
.
In a March 6, 2014, interview with ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
,'' Sanders stated that he was "prepared to run for President of the United States"
in 2016, but did not officially announce a campaign.
When pressed on the issue, Sanders said he was discussing the possibility with people around the country, but felt that it was premature to make an announcement.
After the 2014 congressional elections, Sanders continued to discuss running for president.
On April 28, 2015,
Vermont Public Radio
Vermont Public Co. is the public broadcaster serving the U.S. state of Vermont. Its headquarters, newsroom, and radio studios are located in Colchester, with television studios in Winooski. It operates two statewide radio services aligned with ...
reported that Sanders would announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on April 30. In an interview with ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' on April 29, Sanders stated that he was "running in this election to win," and launched a campaign website, effectively beginning his run.
Sanders said he was motivated to enter the race by what he termed "obscene levels" of income disparity, and the campaign finance system.
On May 26, 2015, Sanders officially announced his candidacy at Burlington's Waterfront Park.
Democratic Party presidential debates
![Jorge_Ramos_&_Bernie_Sanders_by_Gage_Skidmore](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Jorge_Ramos_%26_Bernie_Sanders_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg)
The 2016 Democratic Party presidential debates occurred among candidates in the
campaign for the party's nomination for President of the United States in the
2016 presidential election. The
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
(DNC) announced in May 2015 that there would be six debates. In February 2016, Clinton's and Sanders's campaigns agreed in principle to holding four more, for a total of ten. Critics alleged that the small number of debates and the schedule, with four of the ten on Saturday or Sunday nights, were part of the DNC's deliberate attempt to protect the front-runner, Hillary Clinton. Clinton dropped out of the tenth debate, scheduled to take place just prior to the California elections, citing a need to devote her time making direct contact with voters in California.
A spokesperson from
Fox News
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
, the television network that was to air the debate, said, "Naturally, Fox News is disappointed that Secretary Clinton has declined our debate invitation, especially given that the race is still contested and she had previously agreed to a final debate before the California primary." Sanders responded, "I am disappointed but not surprised by Secretary Clinton's unwillingness to debate before the largest and most important primary in the presidential nominating process."
Campaign
![BernieSanders](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/BernieSanders.jpg)
In a preview of his campaign, Sanders told the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
on April 29, 2015, that he would release "very specific proposals" to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations, offer free higher education at public universities, and pass a single‑payer Medicare-for-All healthcare system. He also noted his support for substantial regulation of
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
and his opposition to the
NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
and
CAFTA trade agreements and to the
Keystone XL pipeline
The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta ...
.
He made the cornerstone of his campaign the reversal of what he calls the "obscene levels" of
income
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
and
wealth inequality
The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or heterogeneity in economics, economic heterogeneity.
The distribution of wealth differs from the i ...
that have eroded the middle class over the last 40 years.
On November 1, 2015, Sanders released his first campaign ad.
![Senator of Vermont Bernie Sanders Campaign Field Office In Nashua NH 06](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Senator_of_Vermont_Bernie_Sanders_Campaign_Field_Office_In_Nashua_NH_06.jpg)
Sanders said his campaign would focus on what he considered "real
family values
Family values, sometimes referred to as familial values, are traditional or cultural values that pertain to the family's structure, function, roles, beliefs, attitudes, and ideals.
In the social sciences and U.S. political discourse, the conventi ...
". "The right has claimed the mantle of 'family values' for far too long. When my Republican colleagues use the term they're usually talking about things like opposition to contraception, denying a woman's right to choose, opposition to gay rights, and support for abstinence-only education," Sanders said. His "real family values" included paid sick time, paid vacations, and access to paid family leave.
On abortion rights, he remarked that “ are saying to every woman in America, that she cannot control her own bod. I disagree. Let's say it loud and clear: Women control their bodies—not the government”.
Sanders stated that he would run a positive campaign with "serious debates on serious issues" and that he had "never run a negative political ad in life".
Sanders said that if he were elected president, his cabinet "would not be dominated by representatives of Wall Street". He cited
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was th ...
,
Joseph Stiglitz
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz (; born February 9, 1943) is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the Joh ...
, and
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reich (; born June 24, 1946) is an American professor, author, lawyer, and political commentator. He worked in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and served as Secretary of Labor from 1993 to 1997 in ...
as potential cabinet members.
In December 2015, the
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
suspended the Sanders campaign's access to its voter data after a staffer viewed data from Hillary Clinton's campaign during a firewall failure. The staffer denied accessing the data but the DNC confirmed it and Sanders apologized. The Sanders campaign criticized the DNC's reaction as excessive and threatened possible legal action unless the Committee restored its access.
The campaign claimed it had warned the DNC about glitches in the voter file program months before. On December 18, 2015, the campaign filed a lawsuit, stating the Committee had unfairly suspended its access.
The DNC and the Sanders campaign struck a deal the same day that restored the campaign's access to voter data.
Addressing the platform of the front-running Republican candidate
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
in an appearance on ''
Face the Nation
''Face the Nation'' is a weekly news and morning public affairs program airing Sundays on the CBS radio and television network. Created by Frank Stanton in 1954, ''Face the Nation'' is one of the longest-running news programs in the history o ...
'' on December 27, Sanders said that “any of Trump's supporters are working-class people and they're angry, and they're angry because they're working longer hours for lower wages, they're angry because their jobs have left this country and gone to China or other low-wage countries, they're angry because they can't afford to send their kids to college so they can't retire with dignity”.
Sanders said that while he believed these are legitimate fears, Trump had “converted them into anger against Mexicans, anger against Muslims” rather than facing the real issue the American people need to confront, “the greed of corporate America”.
Sanders also noted that Trump wanted more tax breaks for the wealthy and was opposed to an increase in the minimum wage.
Sanders was frequently questioned on the controversy over
Hillary Clinton's use of an unauthorized and unsecured private e-mail server for her correspondence as Secretary of State, and he consistently refused to use the allegations of wrongdoing in his campaign message. In late May, when it was reported that a State Department inspector general contradicted Clinton's claims of no wrongdoing, Sanders was asked about it by
Chuck Todd
Charles David Todd (born April 8, 1972) is an American television journalist who is the 12th and current moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He also hosts ''Meet the Press Now'', its daily edition on NBC News Now and is the Political Directo ...
on ''
Meet the Press
''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...
''. He replied, "Well, again, you know, these are areas that I have stayed away from. There is a process, people will draw their conclusions from the inspector general report." Sanders went on to say, "I want to break up the Wall Street banks. She doesn't. I want to raise the minimum wage to fifteen bucks an hour. She wants $12 an hour. I voted against the War in Iraq. She voted for the War in Iraq. I believe we should ban fracking. She does not. I believe we should have a tax on carbon and deal aggressively with climate change. That is not her position. Those are some of the issues that I am campaigning on."
Fundraising
![Bernie Sanders by Gage Skidmore](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Bernie_Sanders_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg)
Unlike the majority of other presidential candidates, Sanders did not pursue funding through a
Super PAC, instead focusing on small, individual donations.
Saying, "We now have a political situation where billionaires are ... able to buy elections and candidates",
Sanders called for an overturn of ''
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission'':
"To equate the ability of billionaires to buy elections with 'freedom of speech' is totally absurd. The Supreme Court is paving the way toward an
oligarchic form of society in which a handful of billionaires like the
Koch brothers
The Koch family ( ) is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2019 revenues of $115 billion). ...
and
Sheldon Adelson
Sheldon Gary Adelson (; August 4, 1933 – January 11, 2021) was an American businessman, investor, political donor and philanthropist. He was the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns th ...
will control our political process."
Sanders raised over $1,500,000 in the first 24 hours after he announced his presidential campaign on April 30, 2015. This was greater than the amount raised by any of the Republican candidates in the first 24 hours after their respective announcements. By May 5, Sanders's campaign had received approximately 75,000 contributions and had raised $3,000,000. Required reports to the Federal Election Commission in July 2015 showed a total of $15,200,000 in donations to the Sanders campaign with an average donation of $31. On September 30, ''The New York Times'' reported that Sanders had raised $26,000,000 over the preceding three months, just short of Hillary Clinton's total of $28,000,000. But Clinton had held ten times as many campaign donor events as Sanders with many contributions of $2,700, the maximum amount allowed, while Sanders's contributions had mostly been under $200.
Sanders raised $20,000,000 in the month of January 2016, $5,000,000 more than Clinton during the same time period, with an average donation of $27.
[ Sanders frequently mentioned this $27 figure on the campaign trail as proof of his grassroots support, and even ran a television commercial on the subject.] He also outraised Clinton in February 2016, pulling in $43.5 million to her $30 million. During March, Sanders raised $44 million from a donor base roughly twice as large as Clinton's. April donations were significantly lower, totaling $25.8 million.
In April 2016, campaign finance watchdogs and Sanders supporters expressed concerns about the Hillary Victory Fund, which Clinton supporters represented as a fundraising committee composed of Clinton's presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and 32 state party committees. The setup allowed Clinton to bypass donation limits and to solicit checks of $350,000 or more from supporters. According to Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
, "the Hillary Victory Fund appears to be pushing the bounds of joint fundraising in its online advertising campaign, which has included many ads urging readers to “Stop Trump” or to support Clinton." In April, a Sanders campaign lawyer sent an open letter to the DNC that alleged that "the victory fund was essentially a pass-through to allow Clinton to benefit from contributions that far exceed the amount that her campaign could legally accept." In a news release accompanying the letter, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver
Jeffrey Charles Weaver (born August 22, 1976) is a former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher. During his career, he pitched for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, St. Louis Cardinal ...
said “it is unprecedented for the DNC to allow a joint committee to be exploited to the benefit of one candidate in the midst of a contested nominating contest.”
Following the nomination of Clinton in June, Sanders thanked his campaign volunteers, saying, "Let me also thank the hundreds of thousands of volunteers in every state in our country who worked so hard on our campaign and the millions of our contributors who showed the world that we could run a successful national campaign based on small individual contributions – 2 1/2 million of them." Sanders's fundraising efforts have been seen as highly innovative in relying on online communication with voters and proving that a modern candidate can win presidential primaries without the support of Super PACs and big donors.
Superdelegate support
A superdelegate
In American politics, a superdelegate is an unpledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is seated automatically and chooses for themselves for whom they vote. These Democratic Party superdelegates (who make up slightly under 15 ...
is a delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is seated automatically, not elected by voters in a primary or caucus. Superdelegates include distinguished party leaders and elected officials, including all Democratic members of the House and Senate and sitting Democratic governors. Other superdelegates are chosen during the primary season. Democratic superdelegates are free to support any candidate for the presidential nomination. As of May, the Democratic Party Superdelegates overwhelmingly supported Hillary Clinton.
On ''Face the Nation
''Face the Nation'' is a weekly news and morning public affairs program airing Sundays on the CBS radio and television network. Created by Frank Stanton in 1954, ''Face the Nation'' is one of the longest-running news programs in the history o ...
'', John Dickerson asked Sanders whether the Democratic system was "rigged". Sanders replied, "I wouldn't use the word 'rigged' ..but what is really dumb is that you have closed primaries, like in New York State, where three million people who are Democrats or Republicans could not participate, where you have a situation where over 400 superdelegates came on board Clinton's campaign before anybody else was in the race, eight months before the first vote was cast." Sanders went on to say that in the states in which he had won landslide victories he believed that the superdelegates "should listen to the people in those states and vote for the candidate chosen by the people."
Speaking events
Sanders often drew large crowds, with many filled to capacity and some with additional supporters outside who could not fit in the venue but still wanted to attend. Early in his campaign, the media favorably compared his rallies' attendance to Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
's. Events scheduled by his campaign were drawing "overflow crowds" around the country.[Tamara Keith (June 15, 2015)]
Bernie Sanders 'Stunned' By Large Crowds Showing Up For Him
''NPR''. Retrieved June 16, 2015. Sanders drew more than 700 supporters to a mid-June event in Iowa, which ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' noted was "the same number who went to a Hillary Clinton event on Sunday that featured a buffet table and a live band." After an estimated 3,000 people attended an event in Minneapolis, Sanders said he was "Stunned. Stunned. I mean I had to fight my way to get into the room. Standing room only. Minneapolis was literally beyond belief."
Beginning in June, crowds at Sanders's events became much larger than those of any other presidential candidate who had announced up to that point.[ At a June 20 appearance in ]Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Sanders drew an estimated 5,000 supporters at a routine campaign stop, equaling the size of the crowd at Hillary Clinton's campaign launch speech in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
the previous weekend.
On July 1, a crowd of at least 10,000 came to see Sanders in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
, nearly twice the size of the biggest crowd of his main primary challenger, Hillary Clinton. A Sanders campaign event in Council Bluffs, Iowa
Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...
, on July 3, drew over 2,500 supporters. To date, this was the largest audience for any 2016 presidential candidate in Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
. Sanders drew a crowd of over 11,000 on July 18 in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
. At that time this had been the largest crowd of any 2016 candidate, of any party.
On a three-day West Coast tour in August, Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
activists interrupted an event in Seattle. The activists removed Sanders from the podium and Sanders looked on as they spoke. The campaign eventually shut down the event. On the following day Sanders spoke to a crowd of 28,000 supporters at the Moda Center
Moda Center, formerly known as the Rose Garden, is the primary indoor sports arena in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is used for basketball, ice hockey, rodeos, circuses, conventions, ice shows, concerts, and dramatic productions. The arena h ...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, and on August 10 more than 27,000 people showed up for his rally in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena
The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena was a multi-purpose arena at Exposition Park, in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and just south of the campus of the University of ...
. On September 14, 2015, Sanders spoke at Liberty University
Liberty University (LU) is a private Baptist university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (Southern Baptist Convention). Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns, Liberty i ...
, a highly Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
-influenced college, during their Convocation
A convocation (from the Latin ''wikt:convocare, convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Ancient Greek, Greek wikt:ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a speci ...
.
In September 2016, Sanders made three speeches in New Hampshire on Labor Day, during his first campaign swing since the launch of his political group, Our Revolution. In these, he attempted to convince the progressives who had backed him into backing Clinton. In doing so, he faced down vociferous objections from audience members who still supported third-party candidates such as Jill Stein, and those who objected to Clinton as their party's nominee.
Polls
Nationwide, Sanders had considerable support among white and liberal-leaning Democrats but considerably less among nonwhite and moderate or conservative Democrats. An April 2015 report by ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' suggested that "nly about a quarter of Democratic‑leaners hold the consistently liberal views that would potentially put them to the left of Mrs. Clinton". A June 2015 ''New York Times'' report said, "in an poll this week, 95 percent of nonwhite Democratic voters said they could see themselves supporting Mrs. Clinton for the nomination in the primary. Only about one-quarter of respondents said they could see themselves voting for Mr. Sanders".
Two August 2015 polls showed Sanders leading Clinton by seven points in New Hampshire. Both the RealClearPolitics
RealClearPolitics (RCP) is an American political news website and polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. The site features selected political ...
polling average and ''The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' Pollster average for the New Hampshire Democratic primary showed Sanders leading Clinton by about 3.5 percent on August 28, 2015.
On November 20, an online NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
poll showed that Sanders's national support continued to grow. A poll that surveyed 5,755 adults nationwide showed Sanders was the preferred candidate of 33% of Democratic and independent voters, still trailing Clinton by 16 points. Sanders continued to show a strong lead among young voters and trailed Clinton by only three points among white voters.
According to a national Quinnipiac University poll on December 2, Sanders polled ahead of the top four Republican candidates in a general election matchup.
In weeks preceding the Democratic primaries, Sanders was leading in New Hampshire by 50% to Clinton's 46% and behind Clinton in Iowa, 48% to 45%. A Quinnipiac University poll released on January 12, 2016, showed Sanders leading in Iowa by 49 percent to Clinton's 44 percent.
Caucuses and primaries
Sanders narrowly lost the February 1, 2016 Iowa Democratic caucuses
Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...
by 0.25% of the vote (49.59 to Clinton's 49.84). He won the New Hampshire Democratic primary
The New Hampshire presidential primary is the first in a series of nationwide party primary elections and the second party contest (the first being the Iowa caucuses) held in the United States every four years as part of United States presiden ...
on February 9, 2016 by 22.4% of the vote (60.4% to Clinton's 38.0%), receiving strong support from voters who considered it important to nominate a candidate who is "honest and trustworthy". This made him the first self-described democratic socialist
Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a ...
and first non-Christian to win a major party's U.S. presidential primary. In his home state of Vermont, Sanders received 86.1% of the vote, denying Clinton any delegates. He also won "landslide" victories in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. On March 8, Sanders pulled off an upset in the Michigan Democratic primary, where polls had favored Clinton by significant margins. Of the 78% of pledged delegates allocated in primaries and caucuses by May 10, 2016, Clinton had won 54% to Sanders's 46%. Of the 715 unpledged delegates or "superdelegates" who voted in the convention in July, Clinton had received endorsements from 505 (71%), Sanders 41 (6%).
Nevada State Convention
At the Nevada Democratic State Convention in May, Sanders delegates were outraged by changes to and interpretations of rules that resulted in denial of the credentials of almost 60 Sanders backers, with the result that Sanders, instead of edging Clinton out in delegates to the national convention, came in second. Angry Sanders backers shouted down keynote speaker Barbara Boxer
Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is an American politician and lobbyist who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the U.S. ...
, a Clinton supporter. It was widely reported that some shoving, and throwing of chairs and other objects, ensued before Nevada Democratic Party Chairwoman Roberta Lange ended the convention early, but no actual evidence of chair-throwing ever emerged. After the convention was adjourned, casino security guards and local police were called to remove Sanders supporters who refused to leave the casino ballroom. Lange received death threats to herself and her family online and by telephone after "Sanders supporters posted Lange's home and business addresses, email and cell phone number online." Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said, "We do not condone violence or encourage violence or even threats of violence", and denied that the campaign had a role "in encouraging the activity that the party is complaining about."
The Nevada Democratic Party wrote to the Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...
accusing Sanders supporters of a "penchant for extra-parliamentary behavior — indeed, actual violence — in place of democratic conduct in a convention setting." Sanders responded, "Our campaign of course believes in non-violent change and it goes without saying that I condemn any and all forms of violence, including the personal harassment of individuals," but added that his supporters had not been treated with "fairness and respect." In April 2017, ''The New York Observer
''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'' reported that DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Deborah Wasserman Schultz (née Wasserman; born September 27, 1966) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from , first elected to Congress in 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a former chair of the Democrat ...
had "used the nationally reported Nevada Convention to attack Sanders supporters, spreading a falsehood that they were throwing chairs. Wasserman Schultz never apologized or rescinded her comments."
Demonstrations
Sanders supporters organized various demonstrations in support of his campaign. They are known to have participated in large numbers in the Donald Trump Chicago rally protest and the Democracy Spring protests. On April 3, a large number of Sanders supporters protested in front of CNN Headquarters in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, demonstrating against the amount of airtime Sanders received in comparison to other candidates.
Advertising
The campaign began to buy advertising in November 2015 when it spent $2million on television ads. In the last two weeks of December and the first week of January, the Sanders campaign spent $4.7million on TV ads, outspending the Clinton campaign. Prior to the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries, the campaign launched the advertisement " America".
Staff
The campaign staff included people with deep political campaign experience and people new to campaign organizing. Campaign manager Jeff Weaver
Jeffrey Charles Weaver (born August 22, 1976) is a former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher. During his career, he pitched for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, St. Louis Cardinal ...
started in politics on Sanders's 1986 gubernatorial campaign.
Claire Sandberg was the Director of Digital Organizing. She worked with senior advisers Becky Bond and Zack Exley
Zack Exley (born December 5, 1969) is an American political and technology consultant.
Early life and education
Exley was raised in West Hartford, Connecticut. He studied abroad at Shanxi Normal University before earning his B.A. in Social Th ...
to run distributed operations leveraging volunteers where the campaign did not yet have paid staff.
On April 14, 2016, Sanders fired the campaign's national Jewish outreach coordinator, Simone Zimmerman, after it was discovered that she had used foul language to describe the Prime Minister of Israel and Hillary Clinton on Facebook. The hiring of Zimmerman, who has a history of opposition to Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza, had been widely criticized by Jewish groups.
Gender discrimination allegations
In January 2019, ''The New York Times'' reported that allegations of sexual harassment, demeaning treatment and pay disparities pertaining to women in the campaign were being circulated by email. Sanders attributed any such misdeeds to members of his staff, claiming that he was not only unaware of them but had instituted new protocols for addressing such issues. Jeff Weaver
Jeffrey Charles Weaver (born August 22, 1976) is a former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher. During his career, he pitched for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, St. Louis Cardinal ...
, Sanders's campaign manager in 2016, acknowledged the existence of problems and expressed a desire to do better in any future campaign. Sanders extended an apology on CNN to "any woman who feels like she was not treated appropriately".
Sanders's campaign committee issued a statement thanking the campaign workers for raising the concerns, and pointing at new policies in the 2018 Senate re-election campaign, already implemented prior to the events from 2016 coming to light. Former staffers sought a meeting to address the events, and in response, Sanders met with them in mid-January. The meeting was facilitated by three female leaders in workplace and employment matters. They stated that it was part of "a process to create practical ways for improving the campaign's culture," and were hoping other campaigns would also take note.
Reception
There was widespread support of Sanders's vision of a "political revolution", but others believed his vision was unrealistic or overly left-wing. Speaking on ''Meet the Press
''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...
'' on January 24, conservative political commentator David Brooks commented on earlier interviews of Clinton and Sanders, "If I didn't know anything about the race until I saw these back-to-back interviews today, I would think, wow, Sanders really has honed his message, and he's captured both authenticity and joy, and Hillary Clinton hasn't honed her message."
Filling in for Sanders at a campaign event in Iowa, Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society an ...
"electrified" the crowd, opening his speech by saying, "What a blessing it is to be here with all of my brothers and sisters of all colors here in central Iowa! Brother Bernie and I come from a great tradition, the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
and Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
; the tradition of Helen Keller and Ella Baker
Ella Josephine Baker (December 13, 1903 – December 13, 1986) was an African-American civil rights and human rights activist. She was a largely behind-the-scenes organizer whose career spanned more than five decades. In New York City and t ...
; the tradition of John Dewey
John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the f ...
—who is the founder of pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...
, but he was a democratic socialist, too. The point is that, you see, democratic socialism is not some kind of alien element. It's organic and indigenous in the history of this nation."
After polls showed Clinton leading by a wide margin in the March 8 Michigan primary, Sanders won in what has been called "one of the greatest upsets in modern political history," drawing comment from political pundits. ABC News wrote, "Bernie Sanders' win in Michigan will go down as the stunner of the election cycle to date, handing his campaign a fresh rationale and new evidence of his rival's vulnerabilities at a critical time in the race. Sanders’ win will raise new questions about the presumed strength and dominance of Hillary Clinton's campaign. (It will also raise questions about the reliability of state-level polling)." Sanders said of the victory, "what we have done is created the kind of momentum that we need to win."
On April 1, 2016, Sanders was interviewed by the ''New York Daily News'' editorial board. Dylan Byers of CNN politics wrote that the interview "showed him having difficulty clearly answering some questions about both foreign and domestic policy". In response to the criticism from the press, Tad Devine, the senior adviser for the Sanders campaign, told CNN, "I understand when you go to New York you're going to get hit by the tabloids, that's what the primaries are about". The Clinton campaign seized on what they considered a poor performance by Sanders, and sent the interview transcript to millions of its backers in a fundraising email, arguing that Sanders hadn't thought through how he would accomplish his biggest goals. But Peter Eavis of ''The New York Times'' wrote that "Bernie Sanders probably knows more about breaking up banks than his critics give him credit for" and that "taken as a whole, Mr. Sanders's answers seem to make sense."
An NBC/''Wall Street Journal'' poll conducted May 15 through 19 found Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in a "dead heat" within the poll's margin of error. But the same poll found that if Sanders were the Democratic nominee, 53% of voters would support him to 39% for Trump. Clinton and Trump were the least popular likely candidates in the poll's history. Sanders received a 43% positive, 36% negative rating.
Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign led to a resurgence of interest in social democracy
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
and democratic socialism among millennials.
Clinton named presumptive nominee
On June 6, 2016, the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
and NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
reported that Clinton had become the presumptive nominee
In politics of the United States, United States politics and government, the term presidential nominee has two different meanings:
# A candidate for president of the United States who has been selected by the Delegate (American politics), delegate ...
after reaching the required number of delegates, including both pledged and unpledged delegates (superdelegates), to secure the nomination. On June 7, Clinton secured a majority of pledged delegates after winning the California and New Jersey primaries. After the final primary election, the District of Columbia's on June 14, Sanders met with Clinton and congratulated her on her successful campaign. On June 16, Sanders gave a speech broadcast live online to his supporters, saying:
I look forward in the coming weeks to continue discussion between the two campaigns to make certain that your voices are heard and that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history, and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda. I also look forward to working with Secretary Clinton to transform the Democratic Party, so that it becomes a party of working people and young people, and not just wealthy campaign contributors, a party that has the guts to take on Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the fossil fuel industry and the other powerful special interests that dominate so much of our political and economic life.
After the speech, the head of National Nurses United
National Nurses United (NNU) is the largest organization of registered nurses in the United States. With more than 225,000 members, it is the farthest-reaching union and professional association of registered nurses in the U.S. Founded in 2009 th ...
, the first national union to back Sanders, said, "What we know about Bernie is that he will be there. He's always been there as a fighter in the Senate, but that he will continue to be there for us. But most importantly, his message was, we have to be there, we have to build a movement, we have to fight." In July, in an effort to win Sanders's endorsement and his supporters' approval, Clinton endorsed several new policies he had advocated for, including plans to eliminate tuition at public colleges and universities and to increase spending for community health centers. On July 12, Sanders endorsed Clinton, saying in a prepared statement:
I am proud of the campaign we ran here in New Hampshire and across the country. Our campaign won the primaries and caucuses in 22 states, and when the roll call at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia is announced it will show that we won almost 1,900 delegates. That is a lot of delegates, far more than almost anyone thought we could win. But it is not enough to win the nomination. Secretary Clinton goes into the convention with 389 more pledged delegates than we have and a lot more super delegates. Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nominating process, and I congratulate her for that. She will be the Democratic nominee for president and I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States.
Wikileaks email release
On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...
released over 20,000 DNC emails, some of which appeared to show DNC officials favoring Clinton over Sanders during the primary. Among other things, one high-ranking DNC official discussed the possibility of making Sanders's irreligious tendencies a campaign issue in southern states, and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Deborah Wasserman Schultz (née Wasserman; born September 27, 1966) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from , first elected to Congress in 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a former chair of the Democrat ...
referred to campaign manager Jeff Weaver
Jeffrey Charles Weaver (born August 22, 1976) is a former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher. During his career, he pitched for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, St. Louis Cardinal ...
as "an ASS" and "a damn liar" and repeatedly called into question Sanders's party loyalty. Wasserman Schultz resigned as DNC chair after the leak, replaced by Donna Brazile
Donna Lease Brazile (; born December 15, 1959) is an American political strategist, campaign manager and political analyst who served twice as acting Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She is currently an ABC News contributor, ...
, and the Democratic National Committee apologized to Sanders. Speaking on CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, Sanders responded to the email leak: "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."
In October 2016, WikiLeaks released emails
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...
from Clinton campaign Chair John Podesta
John David Podesta Jr. (born January 8, 1949) is an American Political consulting, political consultant who has served as Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, Senior Advisor to President Joe Biden for clean energy innovation an ...
showing that Donna Brazile, who was working as a DNC Vice Chair, had given Clinton staff information on the questions to be asked at an upcoming CNN town-hall meeting. Brazile has denied that she was showing favoritism.
After the election, the U.S. intelligence community
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and the Special Counsel investigation
In the United States, a special counsel (formerly called special prosecutor or independent counsel) is a lawyer appointed to Criminal investigation, investigate, and potentially prosecution, prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing fo ...
assessed that the email leaks were part of a larger interference campaign by the Russian government to cause political instability in the United States and to damage the Hillary Clinton campaign by bolstering the candidacies of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein.
Democratic National Convention
Sanders received a three-minute standing ovation when he rose to speak at the Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
on July 25. He thanked and congratulated his campaign workers and spoke of his work with the Democratic Platform Committee, saying, "there was a significant coming together between the two campaigns and we produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party...Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton presidency – and I am going to do everything I can to make that happen."
The first night of the Democratic National Convention was frequently disrupted with booing and chanting by a segment of Sanders's campaign workers termed the "Bernie or Bust" contingent. Even Sanders was booed when he said, "We must vote for Hillary Clinton." The comedian Sarah Silverman
Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer.
Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced ''The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...
, who had campaigned for Sanders but pledged support for Clinton at the convention, said, "Can I just say: To the 'Bernie or Bust' people, you're being ridiculous." A July 25 report by the Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C.
It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...
tracing Democratic voters’ support for candidates from March 2015 to June 2016 indicated that 90% of Democratic voters who had consistently supported Sanders said they would support Clinton in the general election.
After Sanders lost the primary to Clinton, Jill Stein
Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candidat ...
of the Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
offered to let Sanders run on the Green ticket, but he did not respond to her offer. On October 28, 2016, Sanders was declared an eligible write-in candidate
A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...
for president in California, with Tulsi Gabbard
Tulsi Gabbard (; born April 12, 1981) is an American politician, United States Army Reserve officer and political commentator who served as the U.S. representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. Gabbard was the firs ...
as his vice-presidential running mate. For write-in candidates' votes to be counted in California, the candidate must be certified, which "only requires that 55 'electors' sign on to declare a person a write-in candidate, not that the person consent".[
]
Conclusion
On November 8, as Clinton was defeated by Trump in the general election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
, Sanders received almost 6% of the vote in Vermont, despite not being a candidate. This was the highest share of a statewide presidential vote for a write-in
A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...
draft campaign in American history. He also received more votes in Vermont than Gary Johnson
Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman, author, and politician. He served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for Presid ...
, the Libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
candidate, and Jill Stein
Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candidat ...
, the Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
candidate, combined.
Nationwide, it was possible to vote for Sanders as a write-in candidate in 12 states, and exact totals of write-in votes for Sanders were published in three states: California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, and Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
. In those three states, Sanders received 111,850 write-in votes, approximately 15% of the write-in vote nationwide and 0.08% of the vote overall.
On December 19, the day that the Electoral College convened in state capitols around the country, Sanders received one electoral vote for president, from David Mulinix, a faithless elector
In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or ...
in Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
who also voted for Senator Elizabeth Warren for vice president
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
. This was the first electoral vote ever cast for a Jewish American
American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...
for president in United States electoral history. Two other faithless electors, David Bright in Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
and Muhammad Abdurrahman in Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, attempted to cast their electoral votes for Sanders, but their votes were invalidated by their states' faithless elector laws. Bright subsequently switched his vote to Clinton as pledged, while Abdurrahman was replaced by another elector who voted for Clinton as pledged.
Sanders was one of five people who received electoral votes from faithless electors in the 2016 election; the other four were former U.S. Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell ( ; April 5, 1937 – October 18, 2021) was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African ...
(who received three electoral votes), Native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle
Faith Spotted Eagle ( Dakota: or "Standing Stone"; born 1948) is an American activist and politician. She is a member of the Yankton Sioux Nation who attempted to block development of the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline. ...
, former United States Representative
Representative may refer to:
Politics
* Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people
* House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities
* Legislator, som ...
and Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
presidential candidate
A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example:
* to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs.
* t ...
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American author, activist, physician and retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and again from 1979 to 1985, as well ...
, and Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
John Kasich
John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician, author, and television news host who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001 and as the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Kasic ...
of Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. The seven faithless electoral votes for president were the most in history, with the exception of the 63 electors who did not vote for their pledged candidate, Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...
, in 1872
Events
January–March
* January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years.
* February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...
(Greeley had died between election day and the convening of the Electoral College).
Media coverage
Some Sanders supporters raised concerns that publications such as ''The New York Times'' minimized coverage of his campaign in favor of other candidates', especially Trump's and Clinton's. A December 2015 report found that the three major networksCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
, and ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
had spent 234minutes reporting on Republican candidate Donald Trump and 10minutes on Sanders, despite their similar polling results. The report noted that ''ABC World News Tonight
''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening news broadcasting#television, television news program of ABC News, the news division ...
'' had spent 81minutes on Trump and less than 1minute on Sanders during 2015.
On April 3, 2016, hundreds of Sanders supporters protested CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
's coverage of the presidential elections at CNN headquarters. Calling themselves "Occupy CNN", they claimed that major media networks had intentionally minimized Sanders's airtime in favor of candidates such as Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
and Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
.
In May 2016, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski
Mika Emilie Leonia Brzezinski Scarborough (; pl, Brzezińska; born May 2, 1967) is an American talk show host, liberal political commentator, and author who currently co-hosts MSNBC's weekday morning broadcast show ''Morning Joe''. She was forme ...
called on Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Deborah Wasserman Schultz (née Wasserman; born September 27, 1966) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative from , first elected to Congress in 2004. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a former chair of the Democrat ...
, chairwoman of the DNC, to step down over the DNC's bias against the Sanders campaign. The July 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak revealed that Wasserman Schultz was angry about the media's negative coverage of her actions, and that she emailed Chuck Todd
Charles David Todd (born April 8, 1972) is an American television journalist who is the 12th and current moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He also hosts ''Meet the Press Now'', its daily edition on NBC News Now and is the Political Directo ...
on May 18 to say that such coverage of her "must stop". Describing the coverage as the "LAST straw", she ordered the DNC's communications director to call MSNBC president Phil Griffin
Philip T. Griffin (born November 27, 1956) is an American television executive, who from 2008 to 2021 served as president of MSNBC, a United States cable news channel.
Early life
The youngest of four children, Griffin grew up in Chappaqua, Ne ...
to demand an apology from Brzezinski.
Social media
Sanders used social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
to help his campaign gain momentum. His campaign utilized Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, Snapchat
Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...
, Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
, Tumblr
Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
and Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
. Sanders gained a large online grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
following, with supporters rallying support on Twitter under the hashtag #FeelTheBern.
The Sanders campaign was also known for the intense social media activity of some of his backers. Some online activists who enthusiastically promoted Sanders and criticized Clinton supporters were pejoratively called Bernie Bros, insinuating they were sexist in their critique of Clinton.
Sanders gained tens of thousands of followers on Twitter during and after his debate appearances. Although Twitter followers are only one metric of success, this led ''USA Today'' to speculate that he had won the October debate.
Popular media
''Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' (SNL) highlighted Sanders in its October 17, 2015, cold open
A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In Ameri ...
with comedian Larry David
Lawrence Gene David (born July 2, 1947) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and television producer. He and Jerry Seinfeld created the television sitcom ''Seinfeld'', on which David was head writer and executive producer for the first seve ...
portraying him in a parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its subj ...
["Democratic Debate Cold Open" (Video), NBC.com]
Retrieved October 18, 2015 of the first Democratic Primary Presidential debate, which had aired four days earlier on CNN. David returned to the show for the first time in 30 years to portray Sanders.[Nicole Hensley ]
"Larry David and Bernie Sanders are one and the same in 'SNL' cold open" (Video)
''NY Daily News'', October 18, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2015 His impression of Sanders, widely received favorably on Twitter, had him waving his arms and saying: "I'm going to dial it right up to a ten: We're doomed! We need a revolution! We've got millions of people in the streets. We gotta do something and we gotta do it now".[ When shown a clip of David's impression of him by ]George Stephanopoulos
George Robert Stephanopoulos ( el, Γεώργιος Στεφανόπουλος ; born February 10, 1961) is an American television host, political commentator, and former Democratic advisor. Stephanopoulos currently is a coanchor with Robin Robe ...
on ABC's '' This Week'', Sanders responded: "I think we'll use Larry at our next rally. He does me better than I do."
David portrayed Sanders again on SNL's November 7, 2015, cold open, a parody of a Democratic candidates' forum hosted by Rachel Maddow that had aired on ''MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
'' earlier that week.
Although he did not win the official award, in December 2015 Sanders won the readers' poll for ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine's 2015 Person of the Year with 10% of vote.
Internet memes
Sanders's campaign generated many Internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
s. A Facebook group
Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of t ...
called Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash was created to help spread information and comedic entertainment about Sanders. As of March 20, 2016, the group had nearly 420,000 members.
Online dating service
Sanders's campaign also inspired an online dating service
Online dating, also known as Internet dating, Virtual dating, or Mobile app dating, is a relatively recent method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An onlin ...
, Bernie Singles. Founded by Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
sophomore student Colten Caudle and co-owner David Boni on February 17, 2016, Bernie Singles became a trending topic
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, a ...
on Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
, and Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
Tinder
On February 5, 2016, members of the Facebook group
Facebook is a social-network service website launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is a list of software and technology features that can be found on the Facebook website and mobile app and are available to users of t ...
"Bernie Sanders Dank Tinder Convos" (BSDTC) (a spin-off of Bernie Sanders' Dank Meme Stash) were reportedly being banned from dating and social discovery mobile application
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on de ...
Tinder
Tinder is easily combustible material used to start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder until it bursts into flame. The flaming tinder i ...
for promoting Sanders's presidential campaign. BSDTC members would send messages to other Tinder users promoting Sanders and imploring them to vote
Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns. Democracies elect holde ...
for him. In response, many BSDTC members' profiles would either become locked or deleted after being flagged for posting spam
Spam may refer to:
* Spam (food), a canned pork meat product
* Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages
** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages
** Messaging spam, spam targeting users of instant messaging ( ...
or being bots
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...
. Tinder spokeswoman Rosette Pambakian stated in an email, "We wholeheartedly support people sharing their political views on Tinder, but we don't allow spamming. So feel free to spread the Bern, just don't spam."
Bernie or Bust
"Bernie or Bust" refers to the intention of some of Sanders's supporters not to vote for Hillary Clinton if she won the Democratic nomination, but rather to write in Sanders, vote for a third-party candidate such as Jill Stein
Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candidat ...
or Gary Johnson
Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman, author, and politician. He served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for Presid ...
, or not to vote at all.
The movement stemmed from distrust of the Democratic Party establishment and the party's primary system. The party was accused of bias in Clinton's favor beginning around December 2015, culminating in leaked emails just before the 2016 Democratic National Convention
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majo ...
. Sanders repeatedly said he would vote for Clinton in the general election in order to avoid a "disastrous" Trump presidency and encouraged his supporters to do the same.
The Bernie or Bust movement is often cited as one of the contributing factors in Hillary Clinton's loss in the general election via the spoiler effect
Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate.
Vote spl ...
. Other media commentators have disagreed. According to ''NPR'' and ''Newsweek'', more than 20% of Sanders voters voted for Trump or another candidate (or did not vote) in the 2016 general election.[''Newsweek'' (August 23, 2017)](_blank)
/ref>
The movement experienced controversy when, at the Democratic National Convention, comedian Sarah Silverman
Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer.
Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced ''The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...
urged other Sanders supporters to back Hillary Clinton and remarked that Bernie or Bust people were "being ridiculous."
Unaffiliated Sanders-for-President organizations
Among the organizations that worked to elect Sanders without any formal affiliation with his campaign was People for Bernie, an online group that grew out of the Occupy movement
The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...
and was active in sending protesters to shut down Donald Trump rallies.
Veterans for Bernie Sanders, also known as "Vets for Bernie," was the first national grassroots association of military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that has ...
s ever to organize on behalf of a presidential candidate. VFB mobilized veterans in all 50 states to attend Sanders events, including a veterans' rally in Gettysburg. The group has been credited with developing innovative "social media content based around endorsements from individual veterans."
In April 2015, the grassroots group College Students for Bernie
College Students for Bernie (CSFB) was a grassroots organization dedicated to increase young voter participation, enhance progressive politics, and support Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential bid. At the organization's peak during the 2016 United ...
was created by college students from universities from across the country. The group served as an outlet and a resource for college students to take an active role in the 2016 election by campaigning for Sanders and fighting for progressive causes. The organization had over 260 chapters established at various universities and colleges in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
/r/SandersForPresident subreddit
A popular subreddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
with over 500,000 subscribers, /r/SandersForPresident was an organizing forum that mobilized resources for the campaign. As one of the first places Sanders announced his campaign, it was connected through Grassroots For Sanders, the campaign's digital arm. It was created on December 6, 2013, about 17 months before Sanders announced his candidacy, by Aidan King, a graduate of the University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...
, and David Fredrick, co-creator of Grassroots For Sanders. King eventually became the Sanders campaign's social media coordinator.
Although the Sanders campaign did not control the subreddit, it communicated with its moderators. Kenneth Pennington, the Sanders campaign's digital director, told media company Mic that "We work closely with those in leadership roles on the subreddit to make sure that the large audience on Reddit knows exactly how to get involved in the campaign and spread the senator's message".
Political positions
Generally speaking, Bernie Sanders's views have been described as being to the political left
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
of those of competitor Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
.
Economics
Income and wealth inequality
A cornerstone of Sanders's campaign was to fight the decreasing income
Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. For ...
of the middle class and the increase of wealth inequality
The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or heterogeneity in economics, economic heterogeneity.
The distribution of wealth differs from the i ...
:
In July 2015 Sanders introduced legislation that would incrementally increase the federal minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...
to $15 an hour by the year 2020. On November 10, 2015, Sanders joined striking Senate cafeteria workers at a "Fight for $15
The Fight for $15 is an American political movement advocating for the minimum wage to be raised to USD$15
per hour. The federal minimum wage was last set at $7.25 per hour in 2009. The movement has involved strikes by child care, home health ...
" rally in Washington DC and voiced support for the movement.
Taxes
Sanders supported repeal of some tax deductions that benefit hedge fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...
s and corporations, and would have raised taxes on capital gain
Capital gain is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares.
...
s and the wealthiest two percent of Americans, using some of the added revenues to lower the taxes of the middle and lower classes. Reporting that offshore tax havens have allowed America's largest corporations to avoid taxes on more than $1 trillion in profits, Sanders also introduced legislation to end offshore banking. He believed the American government should invest the resulting revenue in America's small businesses and in aid for working people.
Wall Street reform
On May 6, 2015, Sanders introduced legislation to break up "too big to fail
"Too big to fail" (TBTF) and "too big to jail" is a theory in banking and finance that asserts that certain corporations, particularly financial institutions, are so large and so interconnected that their failure would be disastrous to the great ...
" financial institutions. With three of the four banks that were bailed out during the 2007–08 Global Financial Crisis
Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989
* ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015
* Bruno ...
now larger than they were then, Sanders believed that "no single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure would send the world economy into crisis. If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist."
Jobs
Sanders introduced amendments to Senate bills that promote the creation of millions of middle-class jobs by investing in infrastructure, paid for by closing loopholes in the corporate and international tax system. He also supported legislation that would make it easier for workers to join or form a union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
.[Bernie Sanders (December 1, 2014)]
An Economic Agenda for America: 12 Steps Forward
''The Huffington Post.'' Retrieved June 27, 2015. Sanders's campaign website also recognized the plight of the long-term unemployed, citing that “he real unemployment rate is much higher than the ‘official’ figure typically reported in the newspapers”.
Trade
Sanders opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, was a highly contested proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim economies, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Sin ...
(TPP) trade agreement, which he called "a continuation of other disastrous trade agreements like NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
nd CAFTA."[ (transcript of interview with Judy Woodruff)] In 2014, Sanders wrote that "the TPP is much more than a 'free trade' agreement. It is part of a global race to the bottom to boost the profits of large corporations and Wall Street by outsourcing jobs; undercutting worker rights; dismantling labor, environmental, health, food safety and financial laws; and allowing corporations to challenge our laws in international tribunals rather than our own court system".
Federal Reserve
Sanders proposed these reforms of the Fed: "Banking industry executives must no longer be allowed to serve on the Fed's boards...The Fed should charge (banks) a fee that would be used to provide direct loans to small businesses...As a condition of receiving financial assistance from the Fed, large banks must commit to increasing lending to creditworthy small businesses and consumers."
Paid leave
Sanders became a prominent supporter of laws requiring companies to provide their workers parental leave
Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, Paternity (law), paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" an ...
, sick leave
Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sic ...
, and vacation time, arguing that such laws have been adopted by almost every developed country, and that there are significant disparities among the types of workers who have access to paid sick and paid vacation time.
Sanders's Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act (S.1564) would have mandated that companies provide 10 days of paid vacation for employees who have worked for them for at least one year. He cosponsored a Senate bill that would give mothers and fathers 12 weeks of paid family leave to care for a baby. Sanders also cosponsored a bill that would guarantee workers at least seven paid sick days per year for short-term illness, routine medical care, or to care for a sick family member.[
]
Environment
Sanders considered global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
a serious problem. Along with Senator Barbara Boxer
Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is an American politician and lobbyist who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the U.S. ...
, Sanders introduced the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 on January 15, 2007. In a July 26, 2012 speech on the Senate floor, Sanders addressed claims made by Senator Jim Inhofe
James Mountain Inhofe ( ; born November 17, 1934) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Oklahoma, a seat he was first elected to in 1994. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the U.S. Senate Committ ...
: "The bottom line is when Senator Inhofe says global warming is a hoax, he is just dead wrong, according to the vast majority of climate scientists." He was Climate Hawks Vote
Climate Hawks Vote is a grassroots advocacy group that supports candidates and elected officials whom it identifies as making action on climate change a top priority. Founded in 2013, it consists of a super-PAC, Super PAC and a 501(c) organizatio ...
's top-rated senator on climate leadership in the 113th Congress.
Health care
Sanders was a staunch supporter of a universal health care
Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized ar ...
system, and said, "if you are serious about real healthcare reform, the only way to go is single‑payer". He advocated lowering the cost of drugs that are high because they remain under patent for years; some drugs that cost thousands of dollars per year in the U.S. are available for hundreds, or less, in countries where they can be obtained as generics.
As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, Sanders introduced legislation to reauthorize and strengthen the Older Americans Act
The Older Americans Act of 1965 (, ) was the first federal level initiative aimed at providing comprehensive services for older adults. It created the National Aging Network comprising the Administration on Aging on the federal level, State Units ...
, which supports Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels is a programme that delivers meals to individuals at home who are unable to purchase or prepare their own meals. The name is often used generically to refer to home-delivered meals programmes, not all of which are actually named ...
and other programs for seniors. Sanders believed that supporting seniors "is not only the right thing to do, it is the financially smart thing to do", because it decreases expensive hospitalizations and allows seniors to remain in their homes.
NARAL Pro-Choice America
NARAL Pro-Choice America, commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, political action, and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions on abortion, to expand access to ...
gave Sanders a 100% score on his pro-choice
Abortion-rights movements, also referred to as pro-choice movements, advocate for the right to have legal access to induced abortion services including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their pre ...
voting record.
Campaign finance
Sanders supported the public funding of elections and supported both versions of the DISCLOSE Act, legislation would have made campaign finances more transparent, and would have banned U.S. corporations controlled by foreign interests from making political expenditures. He was outspoken in calling for an overturn of ''Citizens United
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
'', a 2010 Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
decision that overturned McCain-Feingold restrictions on political spending by corporations and unions, as it deemed such restrictions a violation of the First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
. Saying that he believed that the ''Citizens United'' decision is "one of the Supreme Court's worst decisions ever" and that it has allowed big money to "deflect attention from the real issues" facing voters, he proposed a constitutional amendment
A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...
to undo the ruling. "We now have a political situation where billionaires are... able to buy elections and candidates", he said.
Foreign policy and national security
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Sanders supported Israel's right to exist
The right to exist is said to be an attribute of nations. According to an essay by the 19th-century French philosopher Ernest Renan, a state has the right to exist when individuals are willing to sacrifice their own interests for the communit ...
and supported a two-state solution
The two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River. The boundary between the two states is still subject to dispute and negotiation ...
.[Bernie Sanders - Vox](_blank)
By Ezra Klein July 28, 2015, Vox In July 2014, Sanders formed part of the "unanimous consent
In parliamentary procedure, unanimous consent, also known as general consent, or in the case of the parliaments under the Westminster system, leave of the house (or leave of the senate), is a situation in which no member present objects to a prop ...
" on the Senate Resolution in support of Operation Protective Edge
The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ),
was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that h ...
, a military operation Israel launched on July 8, 2014. Sanders said that Israel must have a right to live in peace and security. He compared himself to the first Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the name ...
.
When asked about the Palestinian situation, Sanders consistently said that the Palestinians have a right to a state, while Israel has a right to security. A statement published on his Senate website read in part: "Sanders believes the Israeli attacks that killed hundreds of innocent peopleincluding many women and childrenin bombings of civilian neighborhoods and UN controlled schools, hospitals, and refugee camps were disproportionate, and the widespread killing of civilians is completely unacceptable. Israel's actions took an enormous human toll, and appeared to strengthen support for Hamas and may well be sowing the seeds for even more hatred, war and destruction in future years."
Surveillance
Sanders was critical of U.S. government global surveillance policies. He voted against the USA PATRIOT Act
The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of Congress, Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President of the United States, President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniti ...
and all of its renewals and the USA Freedom Act
The USA Freedom Act (, ) is a U.S. law enacted on June 2, 2015, that restored and modified several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had expired the day before. The act imposes some new limits on the bulk collection of telecommunication metada ...
and has characterized the National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
as "out of control." He frequently criticized warrantless wiretapping and the collection of the phone, email, library, and internet browsing records of American citizens without due process:[Sanders Senate Speech on Surveillance](_blank)
Iraq
Sanders strongly opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and voted against the 2002 resolution
Resolution(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate
* Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body
* New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...
authorizing the use of force against Iraq. In a 2002 speech, he said, "I am opposed to giving the President a blank check to launch a unilateral invasion and occupation of Iraq" and "I will vote against this resolution. One, I have not heard any estimates of how many young American men and women might die in such a war or how many tens of thousands of women and children in Iraq might also be killed. As a caring Nation, we should do everything we can to prevent the horrible suffering that a war will cause. War must be the last recourse in international relations, not the first. Second, I am deeply concerned about the precedent that a unilateral invasion of Iraq could establish in terms of international law and the role of the United Nations."
Sanders called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
(ISIS) "a barbaric organization" and "a growing threat", but did not believe that the U.S. should lead the fight against it, saying, "the United States should be supportive, along with other countries, but we cannot and we should not be involved in perpetual warfare in the Middle East—the Muslim countries
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...
themselves must lead the effort".
Education
Early childhood
Drawing figures from an OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
report that ranks the U.S. 33rd out of 36 nations in reading literacy, 27th in mathematical literacy, 22nd in science literacy, and 18th overall in secondary education, Sanders said, "In a society with our resources, it is unconscionable to that we do not properly invest in our children from the very first stages of their lives". He has introduced legislation to provide child care and early education to all children six weeks old through kindergarten. Sanders said "the ''Foundations for Success Act'' would provide preschool children with a full range of services, leading to success in school and critical support for hard-pressed families nationwide."[
]
Student loans
Sanders was an advocate of making college more affordable. He spoke out against the high interest rates on federal student loans, noting that in the next ten years, the federal government will profit by as much as $127 billion from them. He also criticized President Obama for signing legislation that temporarily froze student loan interest rates in exchange for allowing the rates to reach historic highs over the next two years. Sanders believed tax reform was the solution, and developed a plan to bring matching grants from the federal and state governments to cut tuition at public universities by more than half. He criticized both Republicans and Democrats for failing to institute reforms that will stop predatory lending practices in the student loan market.
Tuition-free public universities
Sanders was in favor of public funding for college students. He believed that "we live in a highly competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need the best-educated work force in the world." He further maintained that many developed nations in Western Europe have long taken this approach to higher education. Sanders expected his plan to meet strong opposition from the Republican Party, but said it was ultimately "the American people" who would determine its failure or success.
On May 19, 2015, Sanders introduced the College for All Act (S.1373), which would have used a Robin Hood tax
The Robin Hood tax is a package of financial transaction taxes (FTT) proposed by a campaigning group of civil society non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Campaigners have suggested the tax could be implemented globally, regionally, or uni ...
of 50 cents on every "$100 of stock trades on stock sales" to fund tuition at four-year public colleges and universities for students who meet admission standards. In addition, the Robin Hood tax would have included a .5% speculation fee to be charged on investment houses, hedge funds, and other stock trades, while a .1% fee would be charged on bonds, and a .005% fee on derivatives.
Cultural diversity
Racial justice
Sanders was a civil rights organizer at the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in the 1960s, and has a 100% rating from the NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
for his civil rights voting record. In 1988, Sanders worked for Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...
's presidential campaign
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese fu ...
saying: "Jesse Jackson uniquely and alone has shown the courage to tackle the most important and basic issues facing working class Americans, poor people, elderly people, environmentalists, peace activists, women, and America's minorities."
As part of his 2016 presidential platform, Sanders called for an end to “the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.” Speaking on these issues, Sanders said:
Immigration
In 2007, Sanders helped kill a bill introducing comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that its guest-worker program would depress wages for American workers. Sanders voted for the comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013, saying, "It does not make a lot of sense to me to bring hundreds of thousands of oreignworkers into this country to work for minimum wage and compete with American kids." Sanders opposed guest worker programs and was also skeptical about skilled immigrant (H-1B
The H-1B is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H) that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. A specialty occupation requires the application of ...
) visas, saying, "Last year, the top 10 employers of H-1B guest workers were all offshore outsourcing companies. These firms are responsible for shipping large numbers of American information technology jobs to India and other countries." He believes a path to citizenship should be created for new immigrants. During the campaign, Sanders expressed opposition to "open border
An open border is a border that enables free movement of people (and often of goods) between jurisdictions with no restrictions on movement and is lacking substantive border control. A border may be an open border due to intentional legislation ...
s", telling Vox's Ezra Klein that it was a "Koch brothers
The Koch family ( ) is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2019 revenues of $115 billion). ...
proposal".
LGBT rights
Sanders has supported full equality for gay Americans since at least 1972.
Sanders long supported LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 33 ...
, voting against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act when he was in the House of Representatives, and his home state of Vermont was the first to legalize same-sex unions in 2000, and gay marriage in 2009, both of which Sanders actively supported. Following the Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
ruling in ''Obergefell v. Hodges
''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protect ...
'' in June 2015, Sanders said: "For far too long our justice system has marginalized the gay community, and I am very glad the court caught up to the American people."
Crime
Gun violence
Sanders supports banning semi-automatic weapons and closing a loophole that allows buyers to skirt regulations when making a purchase at a gun show. He is also in favor of instant background checks for gun owners, although he previously opposed the Brady Act, which provided for federal background checks.
In the House of Representatives, Sanders voted for the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) is a U.S law, passed in 2005, that protects firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable when crimes have been committed with their products. Both arms manufacturers and dealers ...
. Speaking to CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
's Jake Tapper
Jacob Paul Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American journalist, author, and cartoonist. He is the lead Washington anchor for CNN, hosts the weekday television news show ''The Lead with Jake Tapper'', and co-hosts the Sunday morning public af ...
on ''State of the Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...
'', Sanders said, "If somebody has a gun and it falls into the hands of a murderer and the murderer kills somebody with a gun, do you hold the gun manufacturer responsible? Not any more than you would hold a hammer company responsible if somebody beats somebody over the head with a hammer." Sanders has said, "we have millions of people who are gun owners in this country—99.9% of those people obey the law. I want to see real, serious debate and action on guns, but it is not going to take place if we simply have extreme positions on both sides. I think I can bring us to the middle."[ Sanders also dismissed the idea that gun control measures could have prevented the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, saying "if you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don't think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen."]
Justice reform
Sanders has called for reforms to sentencing guidelines, drug policy, and use of force policies within police departments. Noting that there are more people incarcerated in the U.S. than any country in the world at an annual cost to taxpayers of $70 billion, Sanders argues that the money would be better spent on education and jobs. He has spoken out against police brutality
Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to, ...
and the uneven rates of arrest of African-Americans and other minorities, saying: "From Ferguson to Baltimore and across this nation, too many African-Americans and other minorities find themselves subjected to a system that treats citizens who have not committed crimes as if they were criminals and that is unacceptable." Following the release of footage depicting the arrest of African American Sandra Bland
Sandra Annette Bland was a 28-year-old African-American woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on , 2015, three days after being arrested during a traffic stop. Her death was ruled a suicide. It was followed by protes ...
for a minor traffic violation, Sanders strongly condemned the “totally outrageous police behavior” shown in the video, stating that: “This video highlights once again why we need real police reform. People should not die for a minor traffic infraction. This type of police abuse has become an all-too-common occurrence for people of color and it must stop." Speaking on ''Face the Nation
''Face the Nation'' is a weekly news and morning public affairs program airing Sundays on the CBS radio and television network. Created by Frank Stanton in 1954, ''Face the Nation'' is one of the longest-running news programs in the history o ...
'' on December 27, Sanders said that “he way was yanked out of that car and the way she was treated by that police officer is not something I think would have happened to the average middle class white woman”.
Sanders has also spoken out against the privatization of prisons throughout the United States, stating:
On September 17, 2015, Sanders introduced the "Justice Is Not for Sale" Act, which prohibits the United States government at federal, state and local levels from contracting with private firms to provide and/or operate detention facilities within two years. He noted that "We cannot fix our criminal justice system if corporations are allowed to profit from mass incarceration."
Death penalty
Sanders has been a strong opponent of the death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
throughout his political career.[Zaid Jilani (July 20, 2015)]
20 Examples of Bernie Sanders' Powerful Record on Civil and Human Rights Since the 1950s
. ''Alternet
AlterNet is a left-leaning online news outlet. It was launched in 1997 by the Independent Media Institute. In 2018, the website was acquired by owners of ''Raw Story''.
Coverage
Coverage is divided into several special sections related to progre ...
.'' Retrieved July 21, 2015.
Marijuana legalization
On October 28, 2015, Sanders expressed his support for the federal legalization of marijuana
The legality of cannabis for medical and recreational use varies by country, in terms of its possession, distribution, and cultivation, and (in regards to medical) how it can be consumed and what medical conditions it can be used for. These ...
by way of its removal from the Controlled Substances Act
The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is the statute establishing federal government of the United States, federal drug policy of the United States, U.S. drug policy under which the manufacture, importation, possession, use, and distribution of ...
, removing it from the list of dangerous substances outlawed by the federal government. This would clear the way for it to be fully legalized at the state level unimpeded by the federal government. Sanders is also in favor of the regulated sale and taxation of marijuana at the state level in a similar manner to alcohol and tobacco.
Endorsements
See also
* Our Revolution
Our Revolution (sometimes known by its initials OR) is an American progressive political action organization spun out of Senator Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign to continue its work. The organization's mission is to educate vote ...
* Brand New Congress
Brand New Congress is an American political action committee with the mission to elect hundreds of new progressive congressional representatives in line with the campaign's political platform.
Background
Brand New Congress is a volunteer-le ...
* Justice Democrats
Justice Democrats is an American progressive political action committee founded on January 23, 2017, by former leaders from the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, as well as political commentators Kyl ...
* Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign
The 2020 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders was an election campaign from the junior United States senator and former representative from Vermont. It began with Sanders's formal announcement on February 19, 2019. The announcement followe ...
References
Page text.‹ref
Medicare for All
additional text.‹/ref›
Page text.‹ref
additional text.‹/ref›
External links
*
*
Bernie Sanders (Video 59:43; C-SPAN; March 9, 2015; National Press Club)
Bernie Sanders at Liberty University with Q&A, September 14, 2015
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, 2016
Sanders, Bernie
Left-wing populism in the United States