Bernie Sanders Announces Bid for 4th Term

At age 82, the Vermont independent, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, says his seniority puts him in a place to help Vermonters ‘in these difficult times.’
Bernie Sanders Announces Bid for 4th Term
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) talks to the media as he walks to the House chamber before President Joe Biden's State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 7, 2024. Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo
Jackson Richman
Emel Akan
Updated:
0:00

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced on May 6 that he is running for reelection.

In a video just more than eight minutes long, Mr. Sanders, 82, who caucuses with the Democrats, remarked that given his seniority on committees, he would be “in a strong position to provide the kind of help the Vermonters need in these difficult times.”

“Much more needs to be done if we are to become the state and the nation our people deserve,” he said in the video, which was posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Mr. Sanders served in the House of Representatives between 1991 and 2007. He has been in the Senate since 2007.

He was chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee between 2013 and 2015 and the Senate Budget Committee between 2021 and 2023. He currently chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Before entering Congress, he was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont. A self-described democratic socialist, he has been a member of many socialist organizations.

In the video, Mr. Sanders, who will be 89 at the end of what would be his fourth Senate term, called for lowering prescription drug costs, lowering the cost of insulin, climate-related action, giving quality health care to veterans, ensuring access to abortion, codifying the landmark Supreme Court abortion case Roe v. Wade, enacting free college tuition, protecting and expanding Social Security and Medicare, and creating affordable housing.

President Joe Biden held a White House meeting this past week to highlight his administration’s continued fight against Big Pharma and efforts to lower prescription drug costs. Mr. Sanders joined President Biden to highlight his efforts to cut health care costs—particularly his recent steps to lower the cost of inhalers.

President Biden criticized drug companies for charging “exorbitant prescription drug prices.”

He also said the Inflation Reduction Act is lowering drug costs for seniors on Medicare.

“Americans are sick and tired of paying by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” he said.

“On average, we pay over three times as much as the people of other major countries for brand-name prescription drugs, and in some cases, we are paying 10 or 20 times more than people around the world for the exact same product.”

In the announcement video, Mr. Sanders said that while Israel has the right to defend itself against the terrorist group Hamas, the Jewish state “does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people.”

He said the United States should cease funding for Israel while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in office.

Additionally, Mr. Sanders called the 2024 election “the most consequential election in our lifetimes.

“Will the United States continue to even function as a democracy, or will we move to an authoritarian form of government?” he asked.

He questioned whether the country would reverse what he called “the unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality” and if it could create a government that works for all and a political system not dominated by wealthy campaign contributors.

Mr. Sanders unsuccessfully ran for president as a Democrat in 2016 and 2020. Each time, he ended up endorsing the Democrat nominees, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and then-President Biden.

A new Wall Street Journal poll showed that President Biden is trailing his rival, former President Donald Trump, in six of the seven battleground states in the 2024 election.

President Trump is leading by 2 to 8 percentage points in six states—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina—on a sample ballot with third-party and independent candidates. When voters only had to choose between him and President Biden, the results remained similar.

In Wisconsin, however, President Biden leads by 3 percentage points on the multi-candidate ballot. The two candidates are tied in a head-to-head matchup in Wisconsin.

Mr. Sanders has endorsed President Biden’s reelection bid.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Jackson Richman is a Washington correspondent for The Epoch Times. In addition to Washington politics, he covers the intersection of politics and sports/sports and culture. He previously was a writer at Mediaite and Washington correspondent at Jewish News Syndicate. His writing has also appeared in The Washington Examiner. He is an alum of George Washington University.
twitter
Related Topics