Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, 2020
Date: November 3, 2020 |
 Donald Trump Joe Biden Howie Hawkins Jo Jorgensen
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| “ | Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.[1] | ” |
| —Bernie Sanders (April 2019)[2] | ||
Bernie Sanders is an independent member of the U.S. Senate from Vermont who caucuses with the Democratic Party. He formally declared his candidacy for president on February 19, 2019. He suspended his presidential campaign on April 8, 2020.[3]
He won the popular vote in Iowa and the most delegates in New Hampshire and Nevada.
Sanders focused his campaign on economic issues, including Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, a $15 minimum wage, expanding the estate tax, limiting the size of banks, and tuition-free college.[4]
Prior to serving in the U.S. Senate, Sanders was the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, from 1981 to 1989 and a member of the U.S. House from 1991 to 2007.
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Democratic pledged delegates by state
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Bernie Sanders (D) presidential
primary results in 2020
State
Date
% of vote received
Pledged delegates
Iowa
February 3
26.5
12
New Hampshire
February 11
25.6
9
Nevada
February 22
40.5
24
South Carolina
February 29
19.8
15
American Samoa
March 3
10.5
0
Arkansas
March 3
22.4
9
California
March 3
36.0
225
Colorado
March 3
37.0
29
Maine
March 3
32.4
9
Massachusetts
March 3
26.6
30
Minnesota
March 3
29.9
27
North Carolina
March 3
24.2
37
Oklahoma
March 3
25.4
13
Tennessee
March 3
25.0
22
Texas
March 3
29.9
99
Utah
March 3
36.1
16
Vermont
March 3
50.7
11
Virginia
March 3
23.1
31
Alabama
March 3
16.5
8
Idaho
March 10
42.4
9
Michigan
March 10
36.3
52
Mississippi
March 10
14.8
2
Missouri
March 10
34.6
24
North Dakota
March 10
53.3
8
Washington
March 10
36.6
43
Democrats Abroad
March 10
57.9
9
Northern Mariana Islands
March 14
20.6
4
Arizona
March 17
32.7
28
Florida
March 17
22.8
57
Illinois
March 17
36.2
60
Wisconsin
April 7
31.7
28
Alaska
April 10
44.7
7
Wyoming
April 17
27.8
4
Ohio
April 28
16.7
21
Kansas
May 2
23.1
10
Nebraska
May 12
14.1
0
Oregon
May 19
20.6
15
Hawaii
May 22
35.3
8
District of Columbia
June 2
10.0
0
Indiana
June 2
13.4
1
Maryland
June 2
7.8
0
Montana
June 2
14.7
1
New Mexico
June 2
15.1
4
Pennsylvania
June 2
18.0
35
Rhode Island
June 2
14.9
1
South Dakota
June 2
22.5
3
Guam
June 6
30.4
2
Virgin Islands
June 6
5.1
0
Georgia
June 9
9.4
0
West Virginia
June 9
12.2
0
Kentucky
June 23
12.1
0
New York
June 23
18.9
43
Delaware
July 7
7.5
0
New Jersey
July 7
14.6
5
Louisiana
July 11
7.4
0
Puerto Rico
July 12
14.8
5
Connecticut
August 11
11.6
0
Total pledged delegates: 1,115
Sanders in the news
- See also: Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing and Editorial approach to story selection for the Daily Presidential News Briefing
This section featured five news stories about Sanders and his presidential campaign. For a complete timeline of Sanders' campaign activity, click here.
- April 8, 2020: Sanders suspended his presidential campaign. He said in a video statement to supporters, “I wish I could give you better news, but I think you know the truth. We are now some 300 delegates behind Vice President Biden and the path toward victory is virtually impossible.” Sanders said he would remain on upcoming primary ballots to win more delegates to influence the party platform at the Democratic National Convention.
- April 7, 2020: Sanders held a livestream discussion on the disproportionate effect the coronavirus pandemic is having on black Americans.
- April 6, 2020: Sanders criticized the Wisconsin Supreme Court for blocking Gov. Tony Evers’ order to postpone in-person voting in the state until June 9. He said his campaign would not conduct traditional GOTV activities in Wisconsin due to public health concerns. “Let’s be clear: holding this election amid the coronavirus outbreak is dangerous, disregards the guidance of public health experts, and may very well prove deadly,” he said in a statement.
- April 4, 2020: The Washington Post reported that Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir and other senior advisers had encouraged Sanders to withdraw from the presidential race.
- April 3, 2020: Sanders released his "Priorities for the Next Coronavirus Relief Package,” which included monthly direct payments of $2,000 to every person in the United States regardless of immigration status. He also called for guaranteed paid medical and sick leave for all workers and hazard pay for essential and frontline workers. He also said the Defense Production Act should be used for the production of personal protective equipment. Sanders called for canceling all student loan payments and suspending monthly payments like rent, mortgages, medical debt, and consumer debt collection.
Biography
Sanders was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, where he grew up. He earned his B.A. in political science from the University of Chicago in 1964 and went on to lecture at Harvard University and Hamilton College in New York. Sanders has also worked as a carpenter and a journalist.[5]
After spending six months in a kibbutz (a communal settlement) in Israel, Sanders moved to Vermont in 1968.[6] In the 1970s, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of Vermont twice and for U.S. Senate twice as a Liberty Union Party candidate. He was elected mayor of Burlington as an independent in 1981, defeating Democratic incumbent Gordon Paquette by a margin of 10 votes, and he served as mayor until 1989.[7]
During his mayoral tenure, Sanders ran unsuccessful bids for governor and U.S. House as an independent before being elected to the House in 1990. He served in the House until 2007, when he became a member of the U.S. Senate following his election to the chamber the previous year.[8]
Sanders sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, which he lost to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He received around 43 percent of the popular vote in the primaries compared to Clinton's 55 percent, and he received support from 39 percent of delegates at the national convention to Clinton's 60 percent.[9]
Though Sanders has held elected office as an independent since 1981 and sought the Democratic nomination for president, he identifies as a democratic socialist.[10]
Campaign staff
- See also: Bernie Sanders presidential campaign staff, 2020, Presidential election key staffers, 2020, and Presidential campaign managers, 2020
The table below shows a sampling of the candidate's 2020 national campaign staff members, including the campaign manager and some senior advisors, political directors, communication directors, and field directors. It also includes each staff member's position in the campaign, previous work experience, and Twitter handle, where available.[11] For a larger list of national campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action.
| Bernie Sanders presidential campaign national staff, 2020 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff | Position | Prior experience | Twitter handle |
| Faiz Shakir | Campaign manager | National political director, American Civil Liberties Union | @fshakir |
| Jeff Weaver | Senior advisor | Campaign manager, Bernie Sanders for President of the United States, 2016 | N/A |
| Chuck Rocha | Senior advisor | Advisor, Bernie Sanders for President of the United States, 2016 | @ChuckRocha |
| Analilia Mejia | Political director | Director, New Jersey Working Families Alliance | N/A |
| Claire Sandberg | Organizing director | Deputy campaign manager, Abdul El-Sayed for Governor of Michigan, 2018 | @clairesandberg |
| Becca Rast | National field director | Campaign manager, Jess King for Congress, 2018 | @beccarast |
| René Spellman | Deputy campaign manager | Executive, CAA Foundation | N/A |
| Arianna Jones | Deputy campaign manager and communications director | Senior vice president of PR, Revolution Messaging | @ariannaijones |
| Ari Rabin-Havt | Deputy campaign manager and chief of staff | Deputy chief of staff, office of Sen. Bernie Sanders | @AriRabinHavt |
| Briahna Joy Gray | National press secretary | Columnist and political editor, The Intercept, Contributing editor, Current Affairs | @briebriejoy |
Campaign finance
The following chart shows Democratic presidential campaign fundraising, including both total receipts and contributions from individuals, as well as campaign spending. Figures for each candidate run through the end of June 2020 or through the final reporting period during which the candidate was actively campaigning for president. The total disbursements column includes operating expenditures, transfers to other committees, refunds, loan repayments, and other disbursements.[12]
Satellite spending
Satellite spending, commonly referred to as outside spending, describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[13][14][15]
This section lists satellite spending in this race reported by news outlets in alphabetical order. If you are aware of spending that should be included, please email us.
- Through January 2020, Vote Nurses Values spent $280,000 to support Sanders.[16]
Democratic presidential primary debates, 2019-2020
- See also: Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
The following table provides an overview of the date, location, host, and number of participants in each scheduled 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.
Campaign advertisements
This section shows a sampling of advertisements released to support or oppose this candidate in the 2020 presidential election.
Support
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Campaign travel
Ballotpedia compiled the number of days each Democratic presidential candidate has spent in the four early primary states—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada—from January 1, 2019, through February 29, 2020.
Information about the candidates' schedules was sourced from The Des Moines Register, NBC Boston/NECN, The Post & Courier, The Nevada Independent.[17][18][19][20]
The following table shows the number of days each candidate spent in each early primary state between January 1, 2019, and February 29, 2020. Candidates marked with an asterisk did not have complete information available for one or more states.
Policy positions
The following policy positions were compiled from the candidate's official campaign website, editorials, speeches, and interviews.
Immigration
Bernie Sanders supports creating a pathway to citizenship, providing legal status to DACA-eligible immigrants, and restructuring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Sanders' campaign website proposes the following. "Enact comprehensive immigration reform, including a path towards citizenship. Expand DACA and DAPA, including providing immediate legal status for young people eligible for the DACA program and developing a humane policy for those seeking asylum. Completely reshape and reform our immigration enforcement system, including fundamentally restructuring ICE, an agency Senator Sanders voted against creating. End the barbaric practice of family separation and detention of children in cages. Dismantle cruel and inhumane deportation programs and detention centers. Establish standards for independent oversight of relevant agencies within DHS." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Healthcare
Bernie Sanders campaign website says he supports "guaranteeing health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program."
Sanders' campaign website also says, "Today, more than 30 million Americans still don’t have health insurance and even more are underinsured. Even for those with insurance, costs are so high that medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Incredibly, we spend significantly more of our national GDP on this inadequate health care system—far more per person than any other major country. And despite doing so, Americans have worse health outcomes and a higher infant mortality rate than countries that spend much less on health care. Our people deserve better. We should be spending money on doctors, nurses, mental health specialists, dentists, and other professionals who provide services to people and improve their lives. We must invest in the development of new drugs and technologies that cure disease and alleviate pain—not wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year on profiteering, huge executive compensation packages, and outrageous administrative costs. The giant pharmaceutical and health insurance lobbies have spent billions of dollars over the past decades to ensure that their profits come before the health of the American people. We must defeat them, together." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Energy and environmental issues
Bernie Sanders says the climate crisis is "the single greatest challenge facing our country" and supports implementing the Green New Deal.
Sanders' campaign website states the following priorities: "Reaching 100 percent renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization by 2050 at latest. Ending unemployment by creating 20 million jobs needed to solve the climate crisis. Directly invest an historic $16.3 trillion public investment toward these efforts. A just transition for workers. Declaring climate change a national emergency. Saving American families money by weatherizing homes and lowering energy bills, building affordable and high-quality, modern public transportation, providing grants and trade-in programs for families and small businesses to purchase high-efficiency electric vehicles, and rebuilding our inefficient and crumbling infrastructure, including deploying universal, affordable high-speed internet. Supporting small family farms by investing in ecologically regenerative and sustainable agriculture. Justice for frontline communities. Commit to reducing emissions throughout the world. Meeting and exceeding our fair share of global emissions reductions. Making massive investments in research and development. Expanding the climate justice movement. Investing in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands. This plan will pay for itself over 15 years. We will pay for the massive investment we need to reverse the climate crisis by: Making the fossil fuel industry pay for their pollution, through litigation, fees, and taxes, and eliminating federal fossil fuel subsidies. Generating revenue from the wholesale of energy produced by the regional Power Marketing Authorities. Scaling back military spending on maintaining global oil dependence. Collecting new income tax revenue from the 20 million new jobs created by the plan. Reduced need for federal and state safety net spending due to the creation of millions of good-paying, unionized jobs. Making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Trade
Bernie Sanders' campaign website says "We need a new trade policy that creates decent-paying jobs in America and ends the race to the bottom. Corporate America cannot continue to throw American workers out on the street while they outsource our jobs and enjoy record-breaking profits. Despite the president’s tough rhetoric and haphazard tariffs, under Trump, we now have a record-breaking $890 billion annual trade deficit in goods. And since Trump was elected, multinational corporations have shipped 185,000 American jobs overseas. That is unacceptable."
His campaign website goes on: "As part of a new trade policy, we must: Eliminate the incentives baked into our current trade and tax agreements that make it easier for multinational corporations to ship jobs overseas. Corporations should not be able to get a tax deduction for the expenses involved in moving their factories abroad and throwing American workers out on the street. Instead of providing federal tax breaks, contracts, grants, and loans to corporations that outsource jobs, we need to support the small businesses that are creating good jobs in America. We must also expand “Buy American,” “Buy Local,” and other government policies that will increase jobs in the U.S. We need to make sure that strong and binding labor, environmental, and human rights standards are written into the core text of all trade agreements. We must also add to the core text of every U.S. trade agreement, enforceable rules against currency cheating, which allows countries to unfairly dump their products in this country and makes our exports more expensive abroad. Our trade policies must support communities of color that have been impacted the worst by our unfair trade deals. Undo the harm that trade agreements have done to family farmers. We must eliminate rules in our trade deals that increase the cost of medicines." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Economy
Bernie Sanders' campaign website says, "While the Bill of Rights protects us from the tyranny of an oppressive government, many in the establishment would like the American people to submit to the tyranny of oligarchs, multinational corporations, Wall Street banks, and billionaires who now control almost every aspect of our daily lives. But as President Franklin Roosevelt said 75 years ago: “True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security.”
His campaign website calls for a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights with the following guarantees: "The right to a job that pays a living wage. The right to quality health care. The right to a complete education. The right to affordable housing. The right to a clean environment. The right to a secure retirement." His campaign website also lists the following priorities on Real Wall Street Reform: "Break up too-big-to-fail banks. End the too-big-to-jail doctrine. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act. Cap credit card interest rates. Allow every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services. Cap ATM fees. Audit the Federal Reserve and make it a more democratic institution so that it becomes responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans, not just the billionaires on Wall Street. Restrict rapid-fire financial speculation with a financial transactions tax. Reform credit rating agencies." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Education
Bernie Sanders supports increasing funding for public education and opposes for-profit charter schools.
Sanders' campaign website proposes the following: "We must make sure that charter schools are accountable, transparent and truly serve the needs of disadvantaged children, not Wall Street, billionaire investors, and other private interests. We must ensure that a handful of billionaires don’t determine education policy for our nation’s children. We will oppose the DeVos-style privatization of our nation’s schools and will not allow public resources to be drained from public schools. We must guarantee childcare and universal pre-Kindergarten for every child in America to help level the playing field, create new and good jobs, and enable parents more easily balance the demands of work and home. We must increase pay for public school teachers so that their salary is commensurate with their importance to society. And we must invest in high-quality, ongoing professional development, and cancel teachers’ student debt. We must protect the tenure system for public school teachers and combat attacks on collective bargaining by corporate profiteers. We must put an end to high-stakes testing and 'teaching to the test' so that our students have a more fulfilling educational life and our teachers are afforded professional respect. We must guarantee children with disabilities an equal right to high-quality education, and increase funding for programs that combat racial segregation and unfair disciplinary practices that disproportionately affect students of color." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Gun regulation
Bernie Sanders supports expanding background checks, banning the sale of certain firearms, and prohibiting high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Sanders' campaign website says, "We must: Take on the NRA and its corrupting effect on Washington. The NRA has become a partisan lobbying public-relations entity for gun manufacturers, and its influence must be stopped. Expand background checks. End the gun show loophole. All gun purchases should be subject to the same background check standards. Ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons. Assault weapons are designed and sold as tools of war. There is absolutely no reason why these firearms should be sold to civilians. Prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines. Crack down on 'straw purchases' where people buy guns for criminals." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Criminal justice
Bernie Sanders campaign website says, "We are going to end the international embarrassment of having more people in jail than any other country on earth. Instead of spending $80 billion a year on jails and incarceration, we are going to invest in jobs and education for our young people. No more private prisons and detention centers. No more profiteering from locking people up. No more 'war on drugs.' No more keeping people in jail because they’re too poor to afford cash bail."
Sanders' campaign website contains the following main tenets of his criminal justice reform plan: "End Profiteering in Our Criminal Justice System. End Cash Bail. Transform the Way We Police Communities. Ensure Law Enforcement Accountability and Robust Oversight. Provide More Support to Police Officers and Create A Robust Non-Law Enforcement Alternative Response System. Ensuring All Americans Due Process. Right to counsel. Ensure Accountability and Fairness in Prosecution. Ending Mass Incarceration and Excessive Sentencing. End the War on Drugs and Stop Criminalizing Addiction. Treat Children Like Children. Reform Our Decrepit Prison System to Make Jails and Prisons More Humane. Ensure a Just Transition Post-Release. Stop The Cycle of Violence by Prioritizing the Most Serious Offenses. Provide Adequate Support to Crime Survivors. Reverse the Criminalization of Disability. Investing in Community Living. Investing in Our Communities." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Foreign policy
Bernie Sanders campaign website says, "The U.S. must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism, and global inequality."
His website says that he will: "Implement a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and peace, and economic fairness. Allow Congress to reassert its Constitutional role in warmaking, so that no president can wage unauthorized and unconstitutional interventions overseas. Follow the American people, who do not want endless war. American troops have been in Afghanistan for nearly 18 years, the longest war in American history. Our troops have been in Iraq since 2003, and in Syria since 2015, and many other places. It is long past time for Congress to reassert its Constitutional authority over the use of force to responsibly end these interventions and bring our troops home. End U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, which has created the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe. Rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement and talk to Iran on a range of other issues. Work with pro-democracy forces around the world to build societies that work for and protect all people. In the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, democracy is under threat by forces of intolerance, corruption, and authoritarianism." [source, as of 2019-08-23]
Impeachment
Bernie Sanders said in a statement, "Three months ago, I called for an impeachment inquiry by the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives into the actions and behavior of President Trump. I believed then and I believe now that in Donald Trump we have the most corrupt president in the modern history of this country." [source, as of 2019-09-24]
Other policy positions
Click on any of the following links to read more policy positions from the 2020 presidential candidates.
Criminal justice
Economy
- 2020 presidential candidates on coronavirus recovery
- 2020 presidential candidates on the economy
- 2020 presidential candidates on Social Security
- 2020 presidential candidates on the minimum wage
- 2020 presidential candidates on paid leave
- 2020 presidential candidates on taxes
Education
- 2020 presidential candidates on education
- 2020 presidential candidates on student loan debt
- 2020 presidential candidates on charter schools and voucher programs
Energy and environmental issues
- 2020 presidential candidates on energy and environmental issues
- 2020 presidential candidates on climate change
- 2020 presidential candidates on the Green New Deal
Foreign policy
- 2020 presidential candidates on foreign policy
- 2020 presidential candidates on China
- 2020 presidential candidates on Russia
- 2020 presidential candidates on North Korea
- 2020 presidential candidates on the Middle East and North Africa
- 2020 presidential candidates on South and Central America
Gun regulation
Healthcare
- 2020 presidential candidates on healthcare
- 2020 presidential candidates on the Affordable Care Act
- 2020 presidential candidates on Medicare for All
- 2020 presidential candidates on prescription drugs costs
Immigration
- 2020 presidential candidates on immigration
- 2020 presidential candidates on border security
- 2020 presidential candidates on DACA and Dreamers
- 2020 presidential candidates on immigration enforcement
Impeachment
Labor
- 2020 presidential candidates on labor policy
- 2020 presidential candidates on Janus v. AFSCME
- 2020 presidential candidates on public-sector unions
- 2020 presidential candidates on unionization and organization
- 2020 presidential candidates on the right to strike
Trade
Campaign themes
The following campaign themes were published on Sanders' campaign website:
| “ |
Health Care for All Today, more than 30 million Americans still don’t have health insurance and even more are underinsured. Even for those with insurance, costs are so high that medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Incredibly, we spend significantly more of our national GDP on this inadequate health care system—far more per person than any other major country. And despite doing so, Americans have worse health outcomes and a higher infant mortality rate than countries that spend much less on health care. Our people deserve better. We should be spending money on doctors, nurses, mental health specialists, dentists, and other professionals who provide services to people and improve their lives. We must invest in the development of new drugs and technologies that cure disease and alleviate pain—not wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year on profiteering, huge executive compensation packages, and outrageous administrative costs. The giant pharmaceutical and health insurance lobbies have spent billions of dollars over the past decades to ensure that their profits come before the health of the American people. We must defeat them, together. That means: Joining every other major country on Earth and guaranteeing health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program. And to lower the prices of prescription drugs now, we need to: Allow Medicare to negotiate with the big drug companies to lower prescription drug prices with the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act. Allow patients, pharmacists, and wholesalers to buy low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other industrialized countries with the Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act. Cut prescription drug prices in half, with the Prescription Drug Price Relief Act, by pegging prices to the median drug price in five major countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan. College for All We need to have the best-educated workforce in the world. It is counter-productive to the best interests of our country that hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and that millions of others leave school with a mountain of debt that burdens them for decades—preventing them from buying homes and starting families. Every young person, regardless of their family income, should have the opportunity to attend college. It is unacceptable, for example, that 28% of African American students are forced to drop out of college after one year due to costs. The federal government shouldn’t make billions of dollars in profit off of student loans while students are drowning in debt. We should invest in young Americans—not leverage their futures. That’s why we must: Make public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free. Fully fund Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Substantially lower student debt. Significantly lower interest rates on student loans. Fight for Working Families We need leaders who will fight for the interests of workers, not just the 1%. In the richest country in the world, there is no state in which working 40 hours at the state minimum wage generates enough income to afford a one-bedroom apartment. It is unacceptable that workers rely on employers for life-saving health care. Working for a living should mean earning a living wage, and health care should be a human right—not a bargaining chip that keeps employees in coercive, exploitative environments. And families should have the security of knowing they can take care of sick loved ones and secure an education for their children. We must: Raise the minimum wage to a living wage of at least $15 an hour. Enact a universal childcare and pre-kindergarten program. Make sure women and men are paid the same wage for the same job through the Paycheck Fairness Act. Guarantee all workers paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave and paid vacation. Make it easier for workers to join unions through the Workplace Democracy Act. Make quality education a right. Implement a green jobs program. Jobs for All In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, everyone who can work in America should have the right to a decent-paying job. We can and should have a full-employment economy. In 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt talked about the right of every American to have a job. That was true then. It is true today. A job guarantee will lower the crime rate, improve mental health, and create a stronger sense of community. It will create a much healthier and happier America. A full-employment economy is not a radical idea. That means: As part of the Green New Deal, we need millions of workers to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure—roads, bridges, drinking water systems, wastewater plants, rail, schools, affordable housing—and build our 100% sustainable energy system. This infrastructure is critical to a thriving, green economy. At a time when our early childhood education system is totally inadequate, we need hundreds of thousands of workers to provide quality care to the young children of our country. As the nation ages, we will need many more workers to provide supportive services for seniors to help them age in their homes and communities, which is where they want to be. Expand Social Security Social Security is the most successful government program in our nation’s history. At a time when about half of Americans over the age of 55 have no retirement savings and 20 percent of seniors are trying to make it on less than $13,500 a year, our job is to expand Social Security to make sure that everyone in this country can retire with the dignity they have earned and everyone with a disability can live with the security they need. We will: Expand and extend Social Security for the next 52 years by making sure that all income over $250,000 a year is subject to the Social Security payroll tax, with the Social Security Expansion Act. Combat Climate Change and Pass a Green New Deal Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet. Yet the giant, multi-national fossil fuel corporations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars furthering their greed and protecting their profits at the expense of our climate and our future. The recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made it clear that if we fail to substantially cut the amount of carbon in our atmosphere in under 11 years, the human, environmental, and economic costs will be severe and irreversible. Climate change is not a problem we will have to worry about 50 years from now. Overwhelming scientific consensus indicates that climate change is already exacerbating extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes. Climate change is already negatively impacting real estate values due to sea level rise and global agriculture and food security through changing water availability, flooding, and drought. These trends will only continue as global temperatures and sea levels continue to rise. We need a president—Bernie Sanders—who understands that climate change is real and an existential threat to our country and the entire planet. When we are in the White House, we will: Pass a Green New Deal to save American families money and generate millions of jobs by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100% energy efficiency and sustainable energy. A Green New Deal will protect workers and the communities in which they live to ensure a transition to family-sustaining wage, union jobs. Invest in infrastructure and programs to protect the frontline communities most vulnerable to extreme climate impacts like wildfires, sea level rise, drought, floods, and extreme weather like hurricanes. Reduce carbon pollution emissions from our transportation system by building out high-speed passenger rail, electric vehicles, and public transit. Ban fracking and new fossil fuel infrastructure and keep oil, gas, and coal in the ground by banning fossil fuel leases on public lands. End exports of coal, natural gas, and crude oil. Meet Our Commitment To Our Veterans While serious people can disagree in good faith about when our country should go to war, there should never be a debate over whether we fulfill the promises made to the men and women who have served this country in our military. As a nation, we have a moral obligation to provide the best quality care to those who have put their lives on the line to defend us. Just as planes and tanks and guns are a cost of war, so is taking care of the men and women who we sent off to fight the war. That includes caring for the spouses and children who have to rebuild their lives after the loss of a loved one. That includes caring for the hundreds of thousands of veterans with multiple amputations or loss of eyesight, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. That includes veterans who are struggling to keep the jobs they rely on to pay their bills, and it includes the terrible tragedy of veterans committing suicide. We must: Fully fund and expand the VA so that every veteran gets the care that they have earned and deserve. Get veterans compensated faster by improving how compensation claims are processed. Expand the VA’s Caregivers Program. Expand mental health services for veterans. Make comprehensive dental care available to all veterans at the VA. Enact A Responsible, Comprehensive Foreign Policy The U.S. must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism, and global inequality. When we are in the White House, we will: Implement a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and peace, and economic fairness. Allow Congress to reassert its Constitutional role in warmaking, so that no president can wage unauthorized and unconstitutional interventions overseas. Follow the American people, who do not want endless war. American troops have been in Afghanistan for nearly 18 years, the longest war in American history. Our troops have been in Iraq since 2003, and in Syria since 2015, and many other places. It is long past time for Congress to reassert its Constitutional authority over the use of force to responsibly end these interventions and bring our troops home. End U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, which has created the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe. Rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement and talk to Iran on a range of other issues. Work with pro-democracy forces around the world to build societies that work for and protect all people. In the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, democracy is under threat by forces of intolerance, corruption, and authoritarianism. Fight for Women’s Rights Despite major advances in civil and political rights, our country still has a long way to go in addressing the issues of gender inequality and reproductive freedom. Right now, extreme forces on the right are launching political attacks and passing draconian laws at both the state and national level with the goal of ending a woman’s right to choose. We must fight back together, and defend a woman’s right to control her own body and economic future. When we are in the White House, we will: Adopt Equal Pay for Equal Work through the Paycheck Fairness Act. Fully fund Planned Parenthood, Title X, and other initiatives that protect women’s health, access to contraception, and the availability of a safe and legal abortion. Expand the WIC program for pregnant mothers, infants, and children. Oppose all efforts to undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade, and appoint federal judges who will uphold women’s most fundamental rights. Immediately reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Fight to end sexual harassment in workplaces, the military, and other institutions. Protect women from harassment, discrimination, and violence in educational institutions by protecting and enforcing Title IX. Fight for Disability Rights We need a president who will champion expanding the rights of people with disabilities. One in four adults in this country has a disability. Despite the progress that has been made over the past two decades, we unfortunately still live in a world where people with disabilities have fewer work opportunities and where the civil rights of people with disabilities are not always protected and respected. People with disabilities experience much higher poverty rates than people without disabilities. As a nation, we have a moral responsibility to ensure that all Americans have the support they need to live with dignity. We must: Protect and expand the Social Security Disability Insurance program. Increase educational opportunities for persons with disabilities, including fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and expanding vocational education opportunities. Guarantee jobs that pay living wages to all persons with disabilities who want to work through a federal job guarantee program. In addition to the job guarantee, Bernie Sanders will end the sub-minimum wage for individuals with disabilities. Ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Enact a Medicare-for-all program that includes home-based and community-based care. Work to ensure no person with a disability experiences discrimination or barriers to living a full and productive life. Fight for LGBTQ Equality The United States has made remarkable progress on gay rights in a relatively short amount of time. But there is still much work to be done. In many states, it is still legal to fire someone for being gay. Incredibly, it is still legal to deny someone housing or service in the military for being transgender. That is unacceptable and must change. We must end discrimination in all forms. We must: Pass the Equality Act, the Every Child Deserves a Family Act and other bills to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people. Ensure LGBTQ people have comprehensive health insurance without discrimination from providers. Protect the rights of LGBTQ people around the world. Advance policies to ensure students can attend school without fear of bullying, and work to substantially reduce suicides. Support police departments that adopt policies to ensure fairer interactions with transgender people, especially transgender women of color who are often targeted by police unfairly, and by instituting training programs to promote compliance with fair policies. Fight discrimination against LGBTQ people by creditors and banks so that people will not be unfairly denied mortgages, credit cards, or student loans. Strongly oppose any legislation that purports to “protect” religious liberty at the expense of others’ rights. Empower the People of Puerto Rico For too long, the people of Puerto Rico have faced inadequate assistance and colonial exploitation in the wake of natural disasters, a decade-long crippling economic crisis, and unjust human suffering. At a time of unprecedented challenges for Puerto Rico, the next president must work to empower Puerto Rican leaders, communities, and advocates. When we are in the White House, we will: Finally repair the damage from Hurricanes Irma and Maria and rebuild Puerto Rico. It is unconscionable that in the wealthiest nation in the world we have allowed our fellow citizens to suffer for so long. The full resources of the United States must be brought to bear on this crisis, for as long as necessary. Restore self-rule in Puerto Rico by ending the reign of greedy Wall Street vulture funds that have a stranglehold on Puerto Rico’s future, return control of the island to the people of Puerto Rico, and give the territory the debt relief it so desperately needs to rebuild with dignity. Ensure a strong social safety net for the people of Puerto Rico by ensuring access to health care, nutrition assistance, veterans benefits, and quality public schools. Demand that the Wealthy, Large Corporations and Wall Street Pay their Fair Share in Taxes At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, we need a progressive tax system in this country that is based on the ability to pay. It is unacceptable that major corporations have paid nothing in federal income taxes, and that corporate CEOs in this country often enjoy an effective tax rate that is lower than their secretaries. If we are serious about reforming the tax code and rebuilding the middle class, we have got to demand that the wealthiest Americans, large corporations, and Wall Street pay their fair share in taxes. When we are in the White House, we will: Pass the For the 99.8 Percent Act to establish a progressive estate tax on multi-millionaire and billionaire inheritances. Eliminate offshore tax scams through the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act. Tax Wall Street speculators through the Inclusive Prosperity Act. Scrap the income cap on Social Security payroll taxes through the Social Security Expansion Act so that millionaires and billionaires pay more into the system. End special tax breaks on capital gains and dividends for the top 1%. Substantially increase the top marginal tax rate on income above $10 million. Close tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy and large corporations. Gun Safety We face an epidemic of gun violence in this country. A significant majority of Americans want commonsense gun reform. But the NRA, now a full-fledged, right-wing political organization, spends millions on TV and internet ads attacking candidates who dare to stand up for what voters want. We must: Take on the NRA and its corrupting effect on Washington. The NRA has become a partisan lobbying public-relations entity for gun manufacturers, and its influence must be stopped. Expand background checks. End the gun show loophole. All gun purchases should be subject to the same background check standards. Ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons. Assault weapons are designed and sold as tools of war. There is absolutely no reason why these firearms should be sold to civilians. Prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines. Crack down on “straw purchases” where people buy guns for criminals. Criminal Justice Reform We are spending $80 billion a year to lock up 2.2 million people, hundreds of thousands of whom have not been convicted of a crime and are solely in jail because they can’t afford their bail. We are criminalizing poverty. And because of the historical legacy of racism in this country, we are disproportionately criminalizing African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. With increased detention of immigrants under the Trump administration, private prisons are becoming more widespread and more profitable. We need real, comprehensive criminal justice reform now. We must: End, once and for all, the destructive “war on drugs,” including legalizing marijuana. Eliminate private prisons and detention centers. End cash bail. Abolish the death penalty. End all mandatory minimums and reinstate the federal system of parole. Seriously reform civil asset forfeitures. Bring about major police department reform. Prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history by “banning the box.” Racial Justice “Equal justice for all” can’t just be an aspirational ideal. Those words were written in our Constitution 242 years ago. And our nation’s founding promise is 242 years overdue. It’s time to treat structural racism with the exigency it deserves. In order to transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color, we must address the five central types of violence waged against black, brown and indigenous Americans: physical, political, legal, economic and environmental. Whether it is a broken criminal justice system, or massive disparities in the availability of financial services, or health disparities, or environmental disparities, or educational disparities, our job is to—and we will—create a nation in which all people are treated equally. That is what we must do, and that is what we will do. Voting Rights and Enfranchisement In the last decade, more than 30 states have considered voter suppression laws whose clear intent is to disenfranchise people of color. How pathetic and how cowardly is that. Together we will end voter suppression in this country and move to automatic voter registration. We are going to make voting easier, not harder. To protect our democracy, we must: Restore the Voting Rights Act. Re-enfranchise the right to vote to the 1 in 13 African-Americans who have had their vote taken away by a felony conviction, paid their debt to society, and deserve to have their rights restored. Secure automatic voter registration for every American over 18. End voter suppression and gerrymandering. Abolish burdensome voter ID laws. Make Election Day a national holiday. Criminal Justice Over the last number of years, we have seen a terrible level of police violence against unarmed people in the minority community: Laquan McDonald, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Jessica Hernandez, Tamir Rice, Jonathan Ferrell, Oscar Grant, Antonio Zambrano-Montes and others. People of color, killed by the police, who should be alive today. We know that African-Americans are twice as likely to be arrested, and almost four times as likely to experience physical force in an encounter with the police. Today, black men are sentenced to 19% more jail time for committing the exact same crime as white men, and African Americans are jailed at more than five times the rate of whites. All of this and more is why we are finally going to bring about real criminal justice reform in this country. We are going to end the international embarrassment of having more people in jail than any other country on earth. Instead of spending $80 billion a year on jails and incarceration, we are going to invest in jobs and education for our young people. No more private prisons and detention centers. No more profiteering from locking people up. No more “war on drugs.” No more keeping people in jail because they’re too poor to afford cash bail. Real police department reform. When we are in the White House, we will: End, once and for all, the destructive “war on drugs,” including legalizing marijuana. Eliminate private prisons and detention centers. End cash bail. Abolish the death penalty. End all mandatory minimums and reinstate the federal system of parole. Seriously reform civil asset forfeitures. Bring about major police department reform. Environmental Justice The ills of pollution and climate change touch everyone, but tragically, they touch those in poverty more than others. Trump’s own EPA has shown that people living in poverty are exposed to more harmful particulate matter in the air, and that people of color are more likely to live near pollution and be exposed to pollutants. According to the EPA report, “results at national, state, and county scales all indicate that non-Whites tend to be burdened disproportionately to Whites.” This, too, is unacceptable. Today, Flint, Michigan, is still without new pipes for clean water, and there are 3,000 other Flint, Michigans, across the country—neighborhoods with lead rates that were double those of Flint during the height of its crisis. Together, we must: Enact a Green New Deal not just to save the planet, but to protect our most vulnerable communities. We must end the scourge of environmental racism, and at the same time create green jobs to support and rebuild the local economies of affected communities. Protect low-income and minority communities, who are hit first and worst by the causes and impacts of climate change, while also protecting existing energy-sector workers as they transition into clean energy and other jobs. Address the inadequate environmental cleanup efforts of Superfund hazardous waste sites in communities of color. Stop the exposure of people of color to harmful chemicals, pesticides and other toxins in homes, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces and challenge faulty assumptions in calculating, assessing, and managing risks, discriminatory zoning and land-use practices and exclusionary policies. Enact a Green New Deal to mitigate climate change and focus on building resilience in low-income and minority communities. Address Healthcare Disparities Today, the infant mortality rate in black communities is more than double the rate for white communities, and the death rates from cancer and almost every other disease is far higher for blacks. Black women are three and a half times more likely to die from pregnancy than white women. We must: End the racial disparities in our health care system—31% of African Americans and 32% of Hispanics struggle paying medical bills compared to 24% of white Americans. We must guarantee health care to all people of color as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program and end this inequity. Economic Justice Black Americans currently have ten cents for every dollar white Americans have. Latinx Americans currently have thirteen cents for every dollar white Americans have. This is unacceptable: It’s time for America to treat the lives of people of color like they’re worth more than change on the dollar. More than 22% of black Americans and more than 21% of Hispanic Americans are living in poverty compared to 12% of white Americans. Today redlining prevents businesses owned by people of color from getting loans, and predatory lending results in higher interest rates in low-income communities of color. More than 47% of African Americans are unbanked or underbanked and some 43% of Hispanic families are unbanked or underbanked, whereas 18% of whites are unbanked or underbanked. The massive disparities and discrimination in the availability of financial services must end. Our campaign is fundamentally dedicated to ending the disparity of wealth, income and power in this country. It’s time to bring a systemic approach to systemic racism. Structural problems require structural solutions, and together we can meet that challenge. Systemic inequities have created innumerable disparities across racial groups from health outcomes, to health insurance rates, education outcomes, college debt rates, and police violence. Bernie is running for president because he believes we’re obligated to do more than just acknowledge the problem. He believes in implementing policies that aim to achieve substantive equality now—while the generations alive today can benefit. In a country that is genuinely free, neither one’s zip code nor the color of their skin would determine a child’s life outcome. Bernie believes our country is morally bound to close the racial wealth divide. In order to do that, we must ensure that people: Start treating the racial wealth divide like the crisis it is. We must end the especially pernicious racial wealth divide that exists today in America within the gap between millionaires and the poor, working, and middle classes of all races. Guarantee a job to every American. A job guarantee will create good-paying jobs and will create work building much needed infrastructure and providing critical services to communities across the country. End redlining practices and other forms of housing discrimination that still exist. Make sure every kid, regardless of race or class, receives a quality education. End the affordable housing crisis and create a path to wealth building through homeownership. Make sure resources are focused on the Americans who need it most — often as a result of structural disadvantage. Bernie supports the 10-20-30 approach to federal investments which focuses substantial federal resources on distressed communities that have high levels of poverty. Support public colleges and HBCUs. It is unacceptable that 28% of African American students are forced to drop out of college after one year due to costs, and 40% of all students fail to graduate in four years largely due to inability to pay tuition. We must make public colleges, universities and trade schools, tuition-free—including for the 76% of HBCU students who attend public colleges—and increase public funding for all HBCUs. Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Black and Latinx workers disproportionately work minimum wage jobs. Raising the minimum wage will increase the wages of 38% of African-American workers and 33% of Latinx workers. End the discriminatory practices in our financial services. We must allow every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services and end lending discrimination once and for all. Immigration Reform We are a nation of immigrants. Bernie is proud to be the son of an immigrant. His father came to this country from Poland without a nickel in his pocket. Their story, his story, and our story is a story of America: hard-working families coming to the United States to create a brighter future for their children. We need to: Enact comprehensive immigration reform, including a path towards citizenship. Expand DACA and DAPA, including providing immediate legal status for young people eligible for the DACA program and developing a humane policy for those seeking asylum. Completely reshape and reform our immigration enforcement system, including fundamentally restructuring ICE, an agency Senator Sanders voted against creating. End the barbaric practice of family separation and detention of children in cages. Dismantle cruel and inhumane deportation programs and detention centers. Establish standards for independent oversight of relevant agencies within DHS. Donald Trump has made himself the biggest platform of hate in the country, and he’s used the demonization of immigrants as his own personal political strategy. That must end, now. Empower Tribal Nations Native Americans are the first Americans, yet they have for far too long been treated as third class citizens. It is unconscionable that today, in 2019, Native Americans still do not always have the right to decide on important issues that affect their communities. We must: Stand with Native Americans in the struggle to protect their treaty and sovereign rights, advance traditional ways of life, and improve the quality of life for Native Americans by upholding the trust responsibility. Honor Native American tribal treaty rights and sovereignty, moving away from a relationship of paternalism and control toward one of deference and support. Reauthorize and expand the Violence Against Women Act to provide critical resources to women in Indian country and allow all tribes to prosecute non-Native criminals. More than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence, and more than 1 in 2 have experienced sexual violence. They deserve justice now. Implement the 10-20-30 legislation introduced in Congress to prioritize federal funding for Indian country and ensure that significant percentages of federal funds are invested in Native communities that lack access to quality schools, health care, and job opportunities. Enact a Green New Deal which includes a federal job guarantee to rebuild Native communities. The Green New Deal will undo environmental damage in Indian country, as well as provide jobs and rebuild the local economies of those communities. Real Wall Street Reform The six largest banks in America have more than $10 trillion in assets, more than 50 percent of our nation’s GDP. Today the four largest financial institutions— JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup—are on average 77% bigger than they were before we bailed them out. No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of Americans or to our nation’s economic well-being. Further, we should not just be concerned about the danger these institutions pose to taxpayers. The enormous concentration of ownership within the financial sector is hurting the middle class and damaging the economy by limiting choices and raising prices for consumers and small businesses. We must: Break up too-big-to-fail banks. End the too-big-to-jail doctrine. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act. Cap credit card interest rates. Allow every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services. Cap ATM fees. Audit the Federal Reserve and make it a more democratic institution so that it becomes responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans, not just the billionaires on Wall Street. Restrict rapid-fire financial speculation with a financial transactions tax. Reform credit rating agencies. Invest In Rural America For too long, Washington has ignored the many crises facing rural America, and the work we must do to unlock its potential. We have seen more and more young people leave the small towns they grew up in and love, not because they don’t want to stay, but because there are fewer and fewer jobs that pay a living wage. We have seen big agribusinesses consolidate, offering lower and lower prices to farmers until smaller farms are forced to close. As family farms disappear, so do the jobs and communities they support. We have seen schools, churches and community centers shut down, and once vibrant Main Streets become boarded up and deserted. As populations decline, essential services like hospitals and nursing homes shutter their doors, forcing rural Americans to drive for sometimes hours to receive adequate health care. In addition to raising the minimum wage, making public college tuition-free, investing in infrastructure, and guaranteeing health care, we must do the following to protect and support our rural communities: Strengthen and expand enforcement of antitrust laws against agribusiness monopolies, so that food producers have a fairer share of market power to negotiate better prices and pay for their hard work. Reform agricultural subsidies so that more federal support goes to smaller- and mid-sized family farms, rather than that support going disproportionately to a handful of the largest producers. Increase funding for the National Health Service Corps and expand Community Health Centers, which provide health care services in medically underserved areas. Invest in rural broadband buildout and reinstate net neutrality rules, which have protected rural small businesses and internet users from predatory practices by telecommunications giants. Address the opioid crisis facing rural America. Fight for comprehensive immigration reform to create a fair and humane immigration system for the immigrants who contribute so much to rural America. Fight For Fair Trade and Workers We need a new trade policy that creates decent-paying jobs in America and ends the race to the bottom. Corporate America cannot continue to throw American workers out on the street while they outsource our jobs and enjoy record-breaking profits. Despite the president’s tough rhetoric and haphazard tariffs, under Trump, we now have a record-breaking $890 billion annual trade deficit in goods. And since Trump was elected, multinational corporations have shipped 185,000 American jobs overseas. That is unacceptable. As part of a new trade policy, we must: Eliminate the incentives baked into our current trade and tax agreements that make it easier for multinational corporations to ship jobs overseas. Corporations should not be able to get a tax deduction for the expenses involved in moving their factories abroad and throwing American workers out on the street. Instead of providing federal tax breaks, contracts, grants, and loans to corporations that outsource jobs, we need to support the small businesses that are creating good jobs in America. We must also expand “Buy American,” “Buy Local,” and other government policies that will increase jobs in the U.S. We need to make sure that strong and binding labor, environmental, and human rights standards are written into the core text of all trade agreements. We must also add to the core text of every U.S. trade agreement, enforceable rules against currency cheating, which allows countries to unfairly dump their products in this country and makes our exports more expensive abroad. Our trade policies must support communities of color that have been impacted the worst by our unfair trade deals. Undo the harm that trade agreements have done to family farmers. We must eliminate rules in our trade deals that increase the cost of medicines. Trade is a good thing, but it has to be fair. Reinvest in Public Education and Teachers Today, more than 60 years after the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision ending legal segregation in our public schools, and 50 years after President Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act into law, poor and minority students are still not afforded the same education as their wealthier, and often whiter counterparts. This is not only unjust and immoral, it endangers our democracy. I’m running for president to restore the promise that every child, regardless of his or her background, has a right to a high-quality public education. Growing inequality is both the cause and the effect of our nation’s desperately underfunded public school system. Many public schools are severely racially segregated—in some parts of the country, worse than before the Brown decision. With funding for public schools in steep decline, students in low-income areas are forced to learn in decrepit buildings and endure high rates of teacher turnover. Public school teachers are severely underpaid and lack critical resources, and their professional experience is being undermined by high stakes testing requirements that drain resources and destroy the joy of learning. Meanwhile, resource-rich private schools spend tens of thousands of dollars more per child than public schools do. They are predominantly white or intentionally diversified, and enjoy the best that money can buy—from state of the art facilities to well-paid, highly skilled teachers. With the vast challenges facing our education system, billionaire philanthropists, Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers are attempting to privatize our education system under the banner of “school choice.” We must act to transform our education system into a high-quality public good. We must make sure that charter schools are accountable, transparent and truly serve the needs of disadvantaged children, not Wall Street, billionaire investors, and other private interests. We must ensure that a handful of billionaires don’t determine education policy for our nation’s children. We will oppose the DeVos-style privatization of our nation’s schools and will not allow public resources to be drained from public schools. We must guarantee childcare and universal pre-Kindergarten for every child in America to help level the playing field, create new and good jobs, and enable parents more easily balance the demands of work and home. We must increase pay for public school teachers so that their salary is commensurate with their importance to society. And we must invest in high-quality, ongoing professional development, and cancel teachers’ student debt. We must protect the tenure system for public school teachers and combat attacks on collective bargaining by corporate profiteers. We must put an end to high-stakes testing and “teaching to the test” so that our students have a more fulfilling educational life and our teachers are afforded professional respect. We must guarantee children with disabilities an equal right to high-quality education, and increase funding for programs that combat racial segregation and unfair disciplinary practices that disproportionately affect students of color. Get Big Money Out of Politics and Restore Democracy We have seen what happens when corporations and billionaires control our system of government to protect their own profit and greed. The era of Wall Street billionaires controlling our government and elections must come to an end, and we must take back our democracy for the American people. Every American, regardless of income and race, must have the freedom to exercise their constitutional right to vote. To make sure every voter counts, we must: Restore the Voting Rights Act. Secure automatic voter registration for every American over 18. Overturn Citizens United. End racist voter suppression and partisan gerrymandering. Abolish burdensome voter ID laws. Re-enfranchise the more than 6 million Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction, paid their debt to society, and deserve to have their rights restored. Make Election Day a national holiday. Abolish super PACs. Replace corporate funding and donations from millionaires and billionaires with public funding of elections that amplifies small-dollar donations. [1] |
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| —Bernie Sanders[21] | ||
Sanders participated in an interview series with The New York Times that asked 21 Democratic candidates the same series of 18 questions. To view Sanders' responses, click here.
Archive of Political Emails
The Archive of Political Emails was founded in July 2019 to compile political fundraising and advocacy emails sent by candidates, elected officials, PACs, nonprofits, NGOs, and other political actors.[22] The archive includes screenshots and searchable text from emails sent by 2020 presidential candidates. To review the Sanders campaign's emails, click here.
Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing
The following section provided a timeline of Sanders' campaign activity beginning in January 2019. The entries, which come from Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing, are sorted by month in reverse chronological order.
2020
2019
See also
- Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
- Presidential candidates, 2020
- Presidential election endorsements, 2020
- PredictIt markets in the 2020 presidential election
- Presidential candidate campaign travel, 2020
- Democratic presidential primary debates, 2020
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ The New York Times, "Bernie Sanders Announces He Is Running for President," April 29, 2015
- ↑ Politico, "Bernie Sanders suspends his presidential campaign," April 8, 2020
- ↑ CNBC, "Bernie Sanders is running for president — and his policies would have a huge impact on business," February 19, 2019
- ↑ Biographical Guide to Members of Congress, "Bernie Sanders," accessed October 12, 2011
- ↑ Chicago Magazine, "Bernie Sanders Found Socialism at the University of Chicago," May 4, 2015
- ↑ The Atlantic, "Bernie Sanders, the Socialist Mayor," October 5, 2015
- ↑ Roll Call, "Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.)," accessed March 8, 2016
- ↑ The Green Papers, "2016 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses, and Conventions: Democratic Convention," accessed July 3, 2019
- ↑ The Hill, "Sanders to give speech defending democratic socialism," June 8, 2019
- ↑ Democracy in Action, "Organization," accessed November 4, 2019
- ↑ FEC, "U.S. President," accessed July 16, 2019
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed September 22, 2015
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed September 22, 2015
- ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," November 6, 2015
- ↑ OpenSecrets, "Majority of top 2020 Democrats backed by outside groups as early primaries near," January 29, 2020
- ↑ The Des Moines Register, "Candidate Tracker," accessed July 29, 2019
- ↑ NECN, "2020 New Hampshire Candidate Tracker," accessed July 29, 2019
- ↑ Post & Courier, "2020 SC Presidential Candidate Tracker," accessed July 29, 2019
- ↑ The Nevada Independent, "Presidential Candidate Tracker," accessed July 29, 2019
- ↑ Bernie Sanders, "Issues," accessed April 23, 2019
- ↑ Archive of Political Emails, "About," accessed September 16, 2019
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