Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is running for another six-year term.
The third-term independent who caucuses with Democrats made the announcement in a video Monday morning.
“As part of the U.S. Senate Democratic leadership team, as a senior member of the Veterans Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Environment and Public Works Committee, 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,” he said. “In recent years, working together, we have made important progress in addressing some very serious challenges. But much, much more needs to be done if we are to become the state and the nation our people deserve.”
The 82-year-old Sanders is a former member of the House of Representatives and Burlington mayor who ran for president twice. His political future has been the subject of intense speculation in Vermont, which is also waiting to learn whether Republican Governor Phil Scott will run for a fifth term. Sanders says among the issues he would focus on in another term is women’s reproductive healthcare.
“We must codify Roe v. Wade into national law and do everything possible to oppose the well-funded right-wing effort to roll back the gains that women have achieved after decades of struggle,” he said. “No more second-class citizenship for the women of Vermont or America.”
Sanders has been a key progressive ally to President Joe Biden in the Senate while also breaking with the administration over Israel’s war in Gaza. Republican Gerald Malloy, who lost the 2022 race to Democrat Peter Welch, is already in the field for this year’s race.
