Bernie Sanders is Running for President in 2020

Vermont Senator and former Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders has recently announced on Tuesday, February 19 his own presidential campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. If he becomes the political party’s nominee and defeats incumbent Republican president Donald Trump, he will become the country’s oldest president ever elected at 79 years old by 2021 since former president Ronald Reagan, who was 69 years old at the beginning of his term in 1981, and Trump, who was 70 years old at the beginning of his term in 2017. Sanders will also become the country’s first Jewish American president as well as the first openly socialist president if elected. 

After Sanders officially announced his campaign online, the campaign has said that they have raised more than $1 million in less than 4 hours. Most of the campaign fundraising has come from small donors, previously similar to his 2016 presidential campaign. Early endorsements have included former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Vermont Senator Patrick Leheay, former Ohio state senator Nina Turner, California Congressman Ro Khanna, and Vermont Congressman Peter Welch.

Sander’s platform includes a Medicare for All single-payer healthcare system, tuition-free and debt free public higher education, progressive taxation, a Green New Deal to combat man-made climate change, and breaking up big banks as well as overturning Citizens United.

Sander’s campaign manager for his 2020 campaign will be former ACLU national political director Faiz Shakir. Shakir, who used to work for former Nevada Senator Harry Reid and California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as well Think Progress, will become the first Muslim American campaign manager of a major presidential campaign in history.