By: Chris Gilmore/TRT Reporter—
Independent Vt. Senator Bernie Sanders has officially joined the growing list of Democratic candidates seeking to become the Party’s presidential nominee. He announced his candidacy via Vermont Public Radio earlier today.
“Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history. It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination in the general election. Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice,” said Sanders, 77, via a YouTube video that also announced his campaign today. “ … Our campaign is about redoubling our efforts to end racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and all forms of discrimination.”
According to a January Morning Consult survey of registered voters poll, Sanders maintained his position as “America’s most popular senator, with 64 percent, for the 11th consecutive time, the senator with the highest approval rating in his or her state, with 64 percent of voters in his state approving of him.”
The Senator continued to reference the LGBTQ community in his message, unlike Trump’s clear attempts to erase nearly every aspect of it since his 2017 Inauguration. Last year alone Trump totally disregarded Pride month, according to NBC News.
“… We need leadership that brings us together, not divides us all. Women and men, black and white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, young and old, Native born and immigrant. Now is the time for us to stand together,” he said.
According to NBC News, early polls already show Sanders “far ahead of the rest of the pack and trailing only former Vice President Joe Biden in the nascent 2020 field.”
“You know, as well as I do, that we are living in a pivotal and dangerous moment in American history. We are running against a President who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction,” he emphasized via the video.
His Democratic challengers are Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Amy Klobuchar. In addition to the senators, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, are seeking the nomination too.
According to the same January Morning Consult survey of registered voters poll, “… Sen. Klobuchar (D-Minn.), isn’t far behind Sanders, “coming in sixth place with a 58 percent approval rating.”
Sen. Sanders is the 6th senator to seek the Democratic presidential nomination and the 12th candidate to announce a run.
Touching on many of the same social issues that also were a part of his last presidential nomination’s platform against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Sanders already owns an infrastructure with people power, digital power lists, etc. that has allowed him to be called, by many reports, the contender to watch out for.
[More on this story, as developments continue to unfold. Answer our Twitter poll here.]
