Bernard Sanders has served as a U.S. senator from Vermont since 2007, and previously served as a U.S. congressman from Vermont from 1991–2007. He is a self-described “democratic socialist” and is presently second — behind only former Vice President Joe Biden — in most 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination polling. Sanders, who is Jewish by birth, is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and went to college at the University of Chicago. It was during his time in Chicago that Sanders first became active in socialist circles and involved with other far-left causes. Although he has sometimes caucused with the Democratic Party during his time in Congress, Sanders has spent most of his adult political life as a registered political independent.
Sanders’ first marriage ended in divorce, and he has been married since 1988 to Jane O’Meara Sanders, a social worker and college administrator. He has four children and seven grandchildren. If successfully nominated for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination, he would be the oldest nominee for a major American political party in modern history (he is now 77 years old).
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