Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders confirmed that he will run for re-election in the Senate as an independent candidate in 2018 despite recent pressure from some Democrats to join the party.
“I am an independent and I have always run in Vermont as an independent, while I caucus with the Democrats in the United States Senate. That’s what I’ve been doing for a long time and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” Sanders said for Fox News.
Sanders caucuses with Democrats in the Senate and lately is under pressure to officially run as a member of the Democratic party, The Hill reports. Bob Mulholland, member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), introduced a resolution at the fall meeting with which he wanted to make the Democrats demand Sanders and Senator Angus King to run as Democrats in the future. But the resolution failed.
Sanders angered some Democrats last year when he sought Democratic presidential nomination, but he conceded the race to Hillary Clinton.
According to some political strategists, if Sanders runs for re-election as a Democrat, that is a clear tip to his 2020 intentions. Still, it doesn’t mean that if Sanders runs once again as an independent, he will not make another try for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Sanders received numerous ovations while he was speaking on Sunday. He headlined a Strafford County Democratic Committee fund-raising dinner and played the hits from the campaign for 2016 election: demanding tuition-free college, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, creation of decent paying union jobs, and overturning of Citizens United, Fox News reported.
Despite Sanders, King also announced he is running as an independent in 2018.
“I’ve been an independent since the early nineties. I was a governor as an independent. That’s who I am,” King said.
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