Photos capture how Bernie Sanders went from being a working-class kid in Brooklyn to a top 2020 Democratic presidential candidate
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, has surged ahead in the 2020 Democratic primary election, running toe-to-toe with former Vice President Joe Biden.
Sanders took the lead in early voting after winning the first three states: Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. He has since fallen slightly behind Biden, who dominated the vote on Super Tuesday.
For nearly four decades, Sanders has been fighting against the people and institutions he views as responsible for rigging the system against the middle class.
Once viewed on the fringe of politics, Sanders' democratic socialist platform has taken a stronghold since he first ran for president in 2016.
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for president in February 2019, following a 2016 campaign run that brought him to the forefront of the political conversation in the US.
Since entering the race, Sanders has quickly gained traction. In February, he became the first presidential candidate in history to win all three early voting states, and despite swearing off of private fundraising, he has raised more money than any other candidate.
Claiming the mantle of democratic socialism, Sanders has railed against a consistent set of targets: Wall Street, multinational corporations, the billionaire class, and the political elite. Throughout his career, he's fought them for ganging up to "rig the system" against working class Americans.
As mayor of Burlington, Vermont, then a House Representative, and later a US senator from the state, he's repeatedly assailed the "establishment", calling for sweeping reforms to remake the nation's economy in a more Scandinavian image.
Sanders has popularized progressive reform such as universal healthcare, increased minimum wage, and debt-forgiveness for college students. Today, many Democratic candidates are running on ideas Sanders championed.
The Vermont senator has long been guarded about his personal life, instead opting to sell his vision of wholesale revolution on the campaign trail. But he's shared more details about his early life in Brooklyn in an effort to connect with voters amid a crowded primary where he is not the only progressive firebrand running for president.
Here's how Sanders went from being a working-class kid in Brooklyn to a top 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
Sanders was born on September 8, 1941 in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. His father was a Jewish paint salesman who immigrated from Poland while his mother was a homemaker raised in New York.
Courtesy of the Sanders campaign
Source: Time, The New Yorker
Sanders grew up in a small, rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn. He played in the streets, attended Hebrew school, and liked to frequent Chinese and Jewish delis.
Bernie Sanders campaign via AP
Source: Time
Sanders said his family struggled to make ends meet throughout his childhood. "It wasn't a question of putting food on the table. It was a question of arguing about whether you buy this or whether you buy that. You know, families do this. I remember a great argument about drapes—whether we could afford them," he said.
Courtesy of the Sanders campaign
Source: The New Yorker
After his mother died, Sanders studied for a year at Brooklyn College and soon wound up at the University of Chicago. He threw himself into protests for the desegregation of Chicago public schools and led a sit-in on campus aimed at integrating university housing. He was once arrested for his activism.
Courtesy of the Sanders campaign
Source: Time, The New Yorker
Through the 1970s, Sanders ran four failed campaigns on Vermont's anti-war Liberty Union Party, twice for senator and twice for governor. But in 1980, he won the mayoral race in Burlington, Vermont, as an independent by only 10 votes.
AP Photo/Donna Light
Source: The New Yorker
Sanders transformed Burlington into a bastion of progressivism and left-wing activism. He oversaw a period of economic growth, and also established an arts council, women's commission, and a youth office.
AP Photo/Donna Light
Source: The New Yorker
The Burlington mayor also added a diplomatic layer to his municipal duties. He traveled to Nicaragua, the Soviet Union, and Cuba to forge closer links with leftist governments.
AP Photo/Bob Child
He would also lambaste then-President Ronald Reagan's anti-communist and interventionist foreign policy.
Source: The New York Times
In the winter of 1987, Sanders recorded "We Shall Overcome," a folk album with a message of peace, justice, and human rights.
AP Photo/Toby Talbot
Source: NPR
A year later, Sanders married Jane O'Meara, who was director of Burlington's youth programs at the time. "He asked me to dance, and we've been together ever since," O'Meara Sanders said. She is now his closest adviser.
Courtesy of the Sanders campaign
Source: Irish Times
Sanders was first elected to the House in 1990 as a socialist candidate. He ran on a platform of slamming more taxes on the rich and slashing military spending, and won by a hefty 17-point margin.
AP Photo/Rob Swanson
Source: The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post
In 1991, Sanders was one of the founding members and the first chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It had six members then, but it's now ballooned to 96 lawmakers.
AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander
Source: The New Yorker
But Sanders initially struggled landing prestigious committee assignments given his non-partisan affiliation as an independent and his outspoken progressive ideals.
Photo by Maureen Keating/ CQ Roll Call via Getty Images
Source: The New Yorker
Sanders didn't make many friends early on in Congress. He once said he wouldn't mind if 80% of its members lost their reelection bids and described Congress as "impotent."
REUTERS/Chris Helgren
A Massachusetts Democratic lawmaker later derided the Vermont congressman, saying, "He screams and hollers, but he is all alone."
Source: The New York Times Magazine
In the House, Sanders developed a reputation for being an outsider, opting to chart his own path rather than compromise. He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement and voted against the Brady Bill five times, a pro-gun control piece of legislation.
Jeff Wolfram/Roll Call/Getty Images
Source: ProPublica, CBS News
Sanders repeatedly grilled Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan at House Financial Services Committee hearings.
Stefan Zaklin/Getty Images
After the Fed chair said in 2003 that American workers enjoyed the world's highest quality of life, Sanders retorted: "Wrong, mister. You go to Scandinavia, and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living, in terms of education, health care, and decent paying jobs."
Source: The Boston Globe
Sanders twice pushed to pass legislation to allow the importation of cheaper prescription drugs. It failed both times in the early 2000s. He later said about Congress: "Nobody knows how this place is run. If they did, they'd go nuts."
Douglas Graham/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images
Source: The New York Times, ProPublica, Rolling Stone
In 2006, Sanders won his Senate campaign by a whopping 33-point margin and started caucusing with Democrats.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Source: The New York Times, Politico
During the financial crisis, Sanders tried blocking the renomination of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, saying he was "an architect of the Bush economy" who had sunk the nation into a recession.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Source: The Boston Globe
As the Affordable Care Act was being debated, Sanders viewed it as a "pathetic" alternative to the federally funded single-payer healthcare system he championed for decades. But Senate Democrats brought him on board as a step in the right direction.
Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty Images
Source: The New York Times
After former President Barack Obama made a deal with Republicans to extend the Bush-era tax cuts in 2010, Sanders ripped into the agreement with an eight-hour filibuster-style speech. The defiant gesture energized progressives, and he turned the speech into a book.
Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
Source: Politico, The New York Times
Sanders worked with Sen. John McCain on bipartisan legislation in 2014 to reform medical care for veterans. It infused $5 billion in more funding for the Department of Veteran Affairs to hire new medical staff, and made it easier for veterans to seek care outside the system as well as to fire inept VA employees.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Source: The New Yorker
Sanders first ran for president in 2015 on a platform of economic populism, seeking to tax the rich, rein in big banks, and champion "Medicare for All." His insurgent campaign against Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton lasted well into 2016, and he won 23 primary races.
REUTERS/Mary Schwalm
Source: The New Yorker
During the 2016 presidential primary race, Sanders gained more of the youth vote than both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump combined.
Luke William Pasley/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Source: Business Insider
After Trump was elected president, Sanders fought to defend Obamacare from being gutted by Republicans. And he continued staging events around the country to spread his progressive message, particularly in rural areas where he believed Democrats failed to make enough inroads in 2016.
Getty/Alex Edelman
Source: The New Yorker
Sanders announced his second presidential campaign in February 2019. But his anti-establishment appeal was tested as Sanders entered a crowded Democratic primary where other candidates also embraced a $15 minimum wage, universal healthcare, and tuition-free college. Sen. Elizabeth Warren emerged as one of his main rivals.
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
Source: The Washington Post
Just 10 hours after announcing his candidacy, Sanders received $4 million from nearly 150,000 individual donors.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Source: Business Insider
Sanders sought early on to quell concerns over past stumbles on racial issues and reports of sexism and other harassment in his 2016 campaign. Yet he became the primary frontrunner, again relying on a similar coalition of young voters and working-class voters that powered his previous run with a torrent of online donations.
Loren Elliott/Reuters
Source: The New York Times
Sanders traveled to Canada just before the first Democratic debate in June to point out the skyrocketing cost of insulin and other prescription drugs in America and how much lower prices were just over the northern border. Canada's comprehensive universal healthcare system has invited comparisons to Medicare for All in the US.
Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Source: The New York Times
Healthcare is a key area of debate in the primary. The Sanders Medicare for All plan would insure every American with comprehensive health insurance paid for by the government and essentially get rid of private coverage.
Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters
Its estimated price tag is over $30 trillion in the first decade of implementation. But Sanders argues any tax increases to pay for it would be offset by cost savings.
Source: NPR, Business Insider
At the July Democratic debate, Sanders defended his signature Medicare for All proposal against attacks from moderate candidates who accused him of not knowing whether it would cover every healthcare need. "I do know it," he said. "I wrote the damn bill!"
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Source: The New York Times
Sanders has aligned his presidential campaign with the legacies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. He called for a "21st-century economic Bill of Rights" to address varying aspects of American life in healthcare, the environment, wages, education, affordable housing, and the environment.
Reuters
Source: The New York Times
The 78-year-old Sanders suffered a heart attack in October, heightening scrutiny around age in the Democratic primary. His campaign canceled events for the week and he was admitted to a hospital for two days. "See you soon on the campaign trail," he said in a video posted on Twitter.
Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Source: The Washington Post
Some believed the Sanders campaign was irreparably harmed as a result of the senator's heart attack. But the candidate bounced back at a New York City campaign rally and scored an endorsement from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a major progressive figure.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters at a New York City campaign rally.
The rally drew 25,000 people to Long Island City in Queens, New York.
Source: Business Insider
AOC and Sanders campaigned together in Iowa, bringing their message of political revolution to a state where the Vermont senator was rebooting his campaign.
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Source: Politico, The New York Times
In February, Sanders claimed victory in the first three voting states: Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, putting him in the lead as the national frontrunner.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Source: Business Insider
But Joe Biden jumped ahead on Super Tuesday, after sweeping the vote in 10 out of the 14 states up for grabs. Biden won the delegate-rich state of Texas, but Sanders is projected to take home the biggest prize: California.
Robyn Beck/Getty; Business Insider
Source: Business Insider
Super Tuesday put Sanders slightly behind Biden in the delegate count. Biden saw a strong victory among Southern and older black voters, while Sanders saw success among young people and Latinos.
Matt Rourke/AP Photo
Sources: Business Insider, Business Insider
In an attempt to halt Sanders in the primaries, former Democratic candidates Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Michael Bloomberg have dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden.
REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Source: Business Insider
Insider polling suggests that Sanders is viewed as the most left-leaning candidate in the field, and the second-most qualified after Biden. After Super Tuesday, there are still 131 days until the Democratic National Convention, and 244 days until Election Day.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP Images
Source: Business Insider
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