After his presidential campaign ended, he started an organization, Our Revolution. Its goal is to "recruit and support candidates for local, state, and national office". He has also announced the upcoming creation of The Sanders Institute, which will spread his political ideas through documentary movies and other media. In February 2017, Sanders began webcasting "The Bernie Sanders Show" on Facebook.
On February 19, 2019, Sanders announced a second presidential campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election. His 2020 campaign had raised over four million in donations from individual donors, the largest than any other presidential candidate in history. In early 2020, Sanders was seen as the front-runner for the nomination after winning the first three primary contests and leading in national polling numbers, but after Joe Biden won most of the Super Tuesday contests in March the primary became more competitive. After failing to win many primary states, Sanders ended his campaign on April 8, 2020, later supporting Biden's campaign for President.
Sanders was born in Brooklyn, New York to Eli Sanders and to Dorothy Glassberg. His father was a Jewish immigrant born in Słopnice, Poland in 1904. His mother was born to Jewish parents in New York City in 1912. He has an older brother, Larry. His grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust. His mother died in 1960 and his father died in 1962.
Sanders studied at Brooklyn College. After he graduated from college, Sanders went to the University of Chicago. When he studied in Chicago, Sanders was a leader of the University of Chicago sit-ins in 1962 because of segregation at the university. He graduated from the university in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.
He was one of thousands of students who traveled by bus to Washington, D.C., to be part of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Later that summer, he was found guilty of resisting arrest during a protest against segregation in Chicago's public schools and was fined $25.
Sanders began his political career in 1971 as a member of the Liberty Union Party. He was the Liberty Union candidate for Governor of Vermont in 1972 and 1976. He was also a candidate for senator in 1972 and 1974. In the 1974 Senate election, Sanders lost to Patrick Leahy and to Dick Mallary. In 1979, Sanders resigned from the party.
He worked as a writer and director for the American People's Historical Society (APHS). When he worked at APHS, he made a 30-minute documentary about Eugene V. Debs.
After Sanders's failed run for governor, close friend Richard Sugarman wanted him to be a candidate for mayor of Burlington. Sanders won the election in February 1981. He beat the six-term mayor Gordon Paquette by ten votes. He took office on April 6, 1981.
As mayor, Sanders wanted to fix Burlington's Lake Champlain. In 1981, Sanders was against Tony Pomerleau. Sanders did not want Pomerleau to change the industrial lake property owned by the Central Vermont Railway. He did not want the waterfront to become expensive condominiums, hotels, and offices.
Sanders used the slogan "Burlington is not for sale". He supported a plan that changed the waterfront area into a district with housing, parks, and public space. As of 2016, the lake area has a public beach and bike paths, along with a boathouse, many parks, and a science center.
In 1987, U.S. News named Sanders as one of America's best mayors. He was a big critic of President Ronald Reagan and his policies on income inequality.
When he was mayor, Sanders helped to fix the city's budget. Sanders left office on April 4, 1989. For a short time, Sanders taught political science at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in 1989 and at Hamilton College in 1991.
In 1988, Republican congressman at the time Jim Jeffords wanted to become senator. This left an open office in Vermont's at-large congressional district.
Sanders became a candidate for the seat as an Independent, but he lost the election. In 1990, Sanders became a candidate for the seat again and defeated Peter Plympton Smith by 16%. Sanders became the first independent elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 40 years. Sanders' 1990 victory was called by "The Washington Post" and others as the "First Socialist Elected" to the United States House of Representatives in many years. Sanders continued to win re-elections with many votes.
In 1991, Sanders co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He chaired the grouping of mostly liberal Democrats for the first eight years. In 1993, Sanders voted for a bill supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA) to stop lawsuits against gun companies. He was against the Brady Bill.
After Ron Dellums left Congress in 1998, Sanders was the only member of Congress who called himself a socialist.
Sanders voted against the Iraq Resolutions in 1991 and 2002. He was against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He voted for the allowed use of military force against terrorists. The authorization looked for good reasons to use military actions after the September 11 attacks.
Sanders is against the Patriot Act. As a member of Congress, he voted against the original Patriot Act. Sanders voted for several acts that would block the Patriot Act.
After Jim Jeffords retired from the Senate in 2006, Sanders became senator when he won the Senate election with 65% of the vote.
Sanders has been a leading voice on issues such as income inequality, climate change, and campaign finance reform. Sanders continued to be a major critic on mass surveillance policies such as the Patriot Act.
On December 10, 2010, Sanders gave a 8½-hour speech against the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. After the speech, people wanted Sanders to be a candidate for president in the 2012 presidential election.
Sanders' filibuster was published in February 2011 by Nation Books as "The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class".
In 2012, he was re-elected with almost 71% of the vote beating Republican John MacGovern.
On January 3, 2013, Sanders became chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. After his term as chairman ended on January 3, 2015, Sanders became a member of the Senate Budget Committee. Sanders made proposals to raise the minimum wage, stop income inequality, and increase Social Security payments.
Sanders is the longest serving Independent member of Congress in American history. In November 2015, Sanders changed parties and became a member of the Democratic Party. On July 26, 2016, however shortly after losing the Democratic presidential nomination, Sanders said he would serve as an Independent in the Senate.
Following Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election, Sanders accepted his victory and promised to work with Trump.
On January 4, 2017, while on the Senate floor, Sanders showed a large cutout of a tweet by President-elect Trump from May 2015 where Trump said he was the "first & only potential GOP candidate" who opposed any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, citing it as what Trump appealed to older voters to elect him on.
While in Los Angeles on February 19, Sanders called Trump "a pathological liar". He promised the defeat of "Trump and Trumpism and the Republican right-wing ideology."
On March 30, two days after President Trump signed an "Energy Independence" executive order, Sanders called Trump's choice to focus on job creation over climate change is "nonsensical, and stupid, and dangerous".
Sanders was against the nomination of Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court. He outlined his issues with Gorsuch in an April 4, 2017 appearance on the Senate floor. Sanders said he believed Gorsuch would support removing restrictions on campaign finance and would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.