Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. (Win McNamee, Getty Images)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will announce Thursday that he will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>run<span style="color: Red;">*</span>for president as a Democrat, according to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>an aide familiar with his plans.
He will soon file Federal Election Commission paperwork and make a formal announcement in late May at City Hall in Burlington, where he previously served as mayor, according to the source.
Sanders would be the first<span style="color: Red;">*</span>major<span style="color: Red;">*</span>candidate to challenge former secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the primaries.
Vermont Public Radio was first to report the news.
The Vermont senator<span style="color: Red;">*</span>considers himself a progressive and will<span style="color: Red;">*</span>seek to siphon off liberal support from Clinton. He has criticized both parties for being too beholden to corporate interests and does not accept campaign donations from corporate PACs.
Sanders had $4.6 million in his Senate campaign account at the end of March that he could use in a presidential campaign. He generally receives most of his contributions from individual donors, but political action committees representing labor unions are longtime contributors. Groups supporting Clinton plan to raise hundreds of millions for her campaign.
“I’m not going to outspend my opponents, that’s for sure,” Sanders told USA TODAY in February.
Sanders, the son of a Polish-Jewish immigrant father and a New York-born mother, is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in history.
Sanders has belonged to one political party in his lifetime — the anti-war Liberty Union Party back in the 1970s — and he spent a long time weighing whether to run for the White House as a Democrat or an independent.
Progressives have said they hope that if Clinton runs for president, she faces a primary challenger who focuses the debate on income inequality and expanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Last spring, Progressive Democrats of America launched its “Run Bernie Run” campaign and collected several thousand signatures urging Sanders to run as a Democrat. The group has organized house parties, some featuring Sanders as a speaker, and has distributed hats, bumper stickers and buttons.
Bernie Sanders, 2016<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
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