Outsider in the White House

Bernie Sanders is a U.S. Senator from Vermont. He also served 16 years in the House of Representatives making him the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history.

Bernie Sanders was born in 1941 in Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago. After graduating in 1964, he moved to Vermont. In 1981, he was elected to the first of four terms as mayor of Burlington.

Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in Congress. Throughout his career he has focused on the shrinking American middle class and the growing income and wealth gaps in the United States. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Sanders in 2014 passed legislation reforming the VA health care system. Sanders was tapped by Senate leadership to be the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. He also serves on the Environment and Public Works Committee, where he has focused on global warming and rebuilding our nation's crumbling infrastructure. He is a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where he has championed efforts to transform our energy system from fossil fuels to renewable power sources like solar and wind. Sanders also sits on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, where he has fought for greater access to affordable health care and improved education programs from pre-K to college

Sanders' campaign against Hillary Clinton for the party's 2016 U.S. presidential nomination raised more money in small, individual contributions than any other in American history, and helped him rise to international recognition. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In.

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