U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the 82-year-old leftist and two-time presidential candidate from Vermont, has announced he will run for re-election amid rumors of a possible retirement.
Sanders, whose 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns galvanized young people and progressives, announced Monday that he would run for a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate.
“Let me thank the people of Vermont from the bottom of my heart for giving me the opportunity to serve them in the United States Senate. It was the honor of my life,” Sanders, an independent, said in a video recording.
“Today I announce my intention to seek another term.”
The announcement comes at a tumultuous time for the Democratic Party, which is facing intense backlash from key constituencies, particularly young voters, over President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
While Sanders initially rejected calls for a ceasefire, he emerged as one of Congress’ harshest critics of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The war has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and there are reports that Israeli forces have committed rights abuses such as torture and indiscriminate bombing of civilians.
In January, Sanders introduced a bill that would have halted security aid to Israel until the U.S. State Department completed a report assessing allegations of human rights abuses in Gaza.
The measure was ultimately defeated after Sanders forced a vote. Sanders, who describes himself as Jewish, has also expressed support for the anti-war camps that began on college campuses in April to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli siege.
The wave of protests swept across university life in the United States and highlighted the generational differences within the Democratic Party regarding support for Israel. But Sanders compared the campus activism to his own experiences protesting for civil rights in the 1960s.
“In 1962, we organized sit-ins to end racist policies at the University of Chicago. In 1963 I was arrested for protesting school segregation. But we were right,” Sanders said in a recent social media post.
“I am proud to see students protesting against the war in Gaza. Stay calm and focused. You’re on the right side of history.”
He also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for attacking the campus protests as “anti-Semitic.”
“Anti-Semitism is a vile and vile form of bigotry that has caused unspeakable harm to many millions of people. But please do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist administration,” Sanders wrote in an April 25 statement.
“It is not anti-Semitic to hold you accountable for your actions.”
In 1962, we organized sit-ins to end racist policies at the University of Chicago. In 1963 I was arrested for protesting school segregation. But we were right.
I am proud to see students protesting against the war in Gaza.
Stay calm and focused. You are on the right side of history.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 4, 2024
Sanders has gained a loyal following because of his support for progressive causes, including universal health care that guarantees access as a human right.
He ran against Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary and showed strong results in early voter states. For example, he placed second in the 2020 Iowa caucuses. He came first in the New Hampshire primary.
But Biden’s dominant performance in South Carolina heralded a shift in the race, and Sanders ultimately paused his campaign in April 2020.
Still, he has since appeared alongside Biden to advocate for initiatives to reduce health care costs. In April, for example, he and Biden held a joint press conference to announce improvements in the cost of inhalers, used to treat asthma.
“You and I have been fighting this for 25 years,” Biden told Sanders from the podium. “We finally beat Big Pharma.”
Still, Sanders’ decision to run for reelection in the U.S. Senate underscores an ongoing debate about age in the Democratic Party.
While it is all but certain that he will win his race in the Democratic stronghold of Vermont, Sanders would be in his late 80s by the end of another term.
For example, voters have repeatedly expressed concerns that President Biden, 81, is too old to run for a second term. An ABC News-Ipsos poll in February found that 86 percent of Americans believe Biden is too advanced in age for the job.
In his announcement video, Sanders said he was motivated to run again, in part because of the possibility that former President Donald Trump could return to the White House for a second term.
Trump is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee to face Biden in a rematch of the 2020 presidential election.
“Will the United States continue to function as a democracy?” Sanders asked. “Or will we move to an authoritarian form of government?”