California 23.38%
New York 10.13%
Washington 6.21%
Massachusetts 4.35%
Other 55.92%
Bernie was elected to the U.S. Senate after 16 years as Vermont’s congressman in the House of Reps. He is now serving his third term in the Senate.
In 1981, Bernie was elected Mayor of Burlington and helped transform Burlington into one of the most exciting and livable small cities in America. During this time, the city made huge strides in affordable housing, progressive taxation, environmental protection, child care, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, youth programs and the arts.
In Congress, Bernie has fought tirelessly for working families, focusing on the shrinking middle class and growing gap between the rich and everyone else. He has fought his entire life to root out all forms of discrimination in our society.
For decades, he’s been fighting to guarantee health care as a human right to everyone in this country, regardless of income, race, gender or sexual identity. Bernie has consistently fought to expand women’s access to reproductive care and has opposed efforts attacking a woman’s right to choose. Bernie successfully worked with Congressman Jim Clyburn to dramatically expand access to community health centers which provide primary care, dental care, low-cost prescription drugs and mental health counseling to more than 28 million Americans. As a result of Senator Sanders’ successful fight, he secured $11 billion for Community Health Centers in the Affordable Care Act that have delivered care to tens of millions of low-income people in this country, largely people of color. He also secured funding for the National Health Service Corps in the Affordable Care Act to bring more health care providers to underserved communities.
From 1995-2005, a period when Congress was controlled by the extreme right wing, Bernie passed more amendments on the floor of the House than any other Member of Congress. For these efforts, Bernie was dubbed the "amendment king". As chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Bernie worked across the aisle to “bridge Washington’s toxic partisan divide and cut one of the most significant deals in years.” He again worked across the aisle to pass a War Powers Resolution in the House and Senate for the first time since its passage 45 years ago.
Bernie’s amendments prevented companies from slashing the pensions of older workers; provided the funding necessary to make tens of thousands of homes more energy efficient; kept senior citizens on fixed incomes warm in the winter through the LIHEAP program; sought to lower prices for prescription drugs; eliminated corporate welfare; and protected our nation’s veterans.
Bernie ran for president in 2016, and together with millions of people in this country, started the political revolution.
