Independent Senator from Vermont and 2016 Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, has announced that he is seeking the Democratic nomination for the White House in 2020. Mr. Sanders announced his intention to run on Vermont Public Radio on Tuesday morning, entering a crowded field of at least 10 other Democratic candidates.
With his 2016 campaign and agenda of free healthcare for all, a $15 minimum wage, zero college tuition and higher taxes on the rich, Mr. Sanders, who has described himself as a democratic socialist, gave the Democratic Party a push to the left, bringing several progressive policies to the mainstream of political discourse.
Some of the policies he popularised are now part of the agenda of those seeking the Democratic nomination, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who is likely to run on a similar platform to Mr. Sanders’s.
The nature of the race has changed markedly in just three years. In 2016, Mr. Sanders was pushing progressive policies and his main opponent for the Democratic nomination, Hilary Clinton, was an establishment candidate. In 2020, Mr. Sanders will run in a less ideologically unique space — a result of his own policy agenda and presence on the national stage.
Grassroots campaign
At least two of those who had endorsed Mr. Sanders previously — Tulsi Gabbard, Congresswoman from Hawaii, and author Marianne Williamson — will now compete with him for the Democratic ticket.
“Hi, I’m Bernie Sanders. I’m running for President,” Mr. Sanders said in a video and email sent to supporters on Tuesday, in which he also asked them to be part of an “unprecedented grassroots campaign”. Mr. Sanders had raised some $230 million, mostly through small donations in 2016.
“Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous President in modern American history,” Mr Sanders said in the video. “ It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination and the general election. Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.”
“Our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. I’m talking about Wall Street, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the private prison industry, and the large multinational corporations that exert such an enormous influence over our lives,” said Mr. Sanders, who has projected himself as a candidate for working class Americans and against entrenched Washington interests.
Mr. Sanders referred to e-commerce giant Amazon paying “nothing in federal income taxes” and the “grotesque” income inequalities in American society. He called for an end to racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and an end to voter suppression and gerrymandering [manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency in an electorally strategic manner].
“We are running against a President who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe, and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction,” Mr. Sanders said.
Oldest candidate
If he wins, Mr. Sanders , at 77, will be the oldest candidate on the Democratic ticket. Yet, he is highly popular among young voters and won the under-30 vote in 2016 against Ms. Clinton. However, Mr. Sanders fared badly last time with African American and women voters. Ms. Clinton won South Carolina — where some 60% of Democratic voters are black — by almost 50 points. Mr. Sanders visited South Carolina on Martin Luther King Jr. day at the end of January and met with lawmakers and others, and delivered a speech in honour of Dr. King.
There are other vulnerabilities in the Sanders campaign. His opponents will likely bring up his voting record on gun control — he received support from the NRA as a Congressman in 1990 for voting against wait times for those wanting to buy handguns. Mr. Sanders is also likely to be challenged on reports of harassment of female workers by their colleagues and pay disparities in the Sanders campaign in 2016.
“I certainly apologise to any woman who felt she was not treated appropriately, and of course, if I run we will do better the next time,” Mr. Sanders had said.
A recent Morning Consult nationwide poll of democratic primary voters put Mr. Sanders in second place, winning 22% of primary voters and behind former Vice-President Joe Biden (29%). Indian and African American candidate Kamala Harris came in third at 13%.
