At the age of 82, an independent senator from Vermont and past Democratic contender for the presidency, Bernie Sanders, declared on Monday that he would seek reelection to a fourth six-year term.
In a recorded message, Sanders expressed his gratitude to the people of Vermont “for granting me the chance to serve in the United States Senate,” calling it “the honour of my life.”
“Today I am announcing my intention to seek another term. And let me take a few minutes to tell you why.”
Sanders said so in his distinctive clipped New York accent.
Sanders stated: “I have been, and will be, if re-elected, in a strong position to provide the kind of help that Vermonters need in these difficult times,” citing his positions as the chair of the Senate Health, labour, and Pensions committee, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, and a member of the committees on veterans affairs, the budget, and the environment.
Sanders will be 89 years old at the end of those six years if he is re-elected and serves the entire term. That would still make him younger than the current oldest senator, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, who turns 91 in September, in the Senate, which is unquestionably gerontocratic. The Republican has applied to compete for reelection in 2028.
Before running for the Senate in 2007, Sanders served as a mayor and for 16 years as a member of the US House.
He shot to international stardom in 2016 when he mounted an unexpectedly strong populist left-wing challenge against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 2020, he ran a strong campaign again, but Joe Biden prevailed.
Sanders, who recently declared his intention to run for office again, emphasized the need to combat climate change, which has caused Vermont to experience severe flooding, to properly care for veterans, to preserve abortion rights, and to improve public healthcare, including by defending Medicare, social security, and prescription drug prices.
“We must codify Roe v Wade [which protected federal abortion rights until 2022] into national law and do everything possible to oppose the well-funded rightwing effort to roll back the gains that women have achieved after decades of struggle,” Sanders said. “No more second-class citizenship for the women of Vermont. Or America.”
“On October 7, 2023, Hamas, a terrorist organization, began the war in Gaza with a horrific attack on Israel that killed 1,200 innocent men, women, and children and took more than 230 hostages, some of whom are still in captivity today,” Sanders said, addressing a topic that threatens to polarize Democrats in the year of a presidential election. Israel was fully entitled to self-defence in the wake of this terrorist attack.
However, Jewish activist Sanders further stated that Israel “did not and does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people, which is exactly what it is doing: Thus far, 34,000 Palestinians have lost their lives and 77,000 have been injured; women and children make up 70% of the wounded. Humanitarian organizations warn that hunger and starvation are already on the horizon.
“In my view, US tax dollars should not be going to the extremist [Benjamin] Netanyahu government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people.”
Finally, even though he did not specifically mention Donald Trump, Sanders referred to the 2024 election as “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? Will we reverse the unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality that now exists? Or will we continue to see billionaires get richer while working families struggle to put food on the table? Can we create a government that works for all of us? Or will our political system continue to be dominated by wealthy campaign contributors?
“These are just some of the questions that together we need to answer.”
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