Senator Bernie Sanders, a leading progressive voice on Capitol Hill, announced on Monday that he would seek a fourth term in the Senate this fall, calling November’s elections a fight for democracy and equity.
Mr. Sanders, an 82-year-old Vermont independent and two-time presidential candidate, caucuses with Democrats in the Senate. He is the longest-serving independent in Congress, having previously served in the House for 16 years. If re-elected, he would be 89 years old at the end of his term.
“This is the most important national election in our lifetimes,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement that also cited battles over other hot-button issues including economic equity, reproductive rights and climate change. “We must fight to make sure that we remain a democracy, not an authoritarian society.”
“The stakes are enormous,” he added. “This is an election we must not lose.”
Mr. Sanders said he was “proud” of his role in expanding veterans’ access to health care, easing student debt, lowering prescription drug prices, fighting climate change and voting to protect abortion rights. But, he said in a video announcement, “much, much more needs to be done if we are to become the state, and the nation, that our people deserve.”
“The political revolution continues,” read the subject line of a fund-raising email Mr. Sanders sent out shortly after his announcement.
Mr. Sanders wields significant power as chairman of the Senate health committee. He also serves on the Democratic leadership team and sits on several other committees, including on the budget, environment and public works and veterans’ affairs. He previously was the chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs 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 his statement, Mr. Sanders also addressed the war in Gaza, which has become a flashpoint among Democrats and prompted ire from liberal voters angry over how elected officials including President Biden have approached Israel’s conduct in the conflict.
Mr. Sanders faced criticism from many of the same progressive activists who powered his presidential runs for not calling for an “immediate” and “permanent” cease-fire early in the war, which began after the brutal attack led by Hamas on Oct. 7. Still, Mr. Sanders, who is Jewish and whose father’s family was killed in the Holocaust, has been a leading and vocal proponent for conditioning U.S. aid to Israel — a position at odds with many other Democratic members of Congress.
“Israel had the absolute right to defend itself against this terrorist attack, but it did not and does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people, which is exactly what it is doing,” Mr. Sanders said, citing the staggering death toll and dire hunger crisis in Gaza. “U.S. tax dollars should not be going to the extremist Netanyahu government to continue its devastating war against the Palestinian people.”
Mr. Sanders won re-election to the Senate in 2018 with 67.4 percent of the vote.