Senator Bernie Sanders has endorsed more than five dozen candidates for local and state offices nationwide as he seeks to remake the Democratic Party in his image and build a progressive bench as part of his legacy.<\/p>\n
Mr. Sanders said in an interview that at 84, his days as one of the defining faces of progressivism in America are numbered, so he is working to help elect as many like-minded allies as possible up and down the ballot, from county commissions to the Senate.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time I\u2019m 104 and serving my 8th term in the U.S. Senate \u2014 that\u2019s a joke,\u201d Mr. Sanders said, pausing for effect. \u201cYes of course, we\u2019re building a movement for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Sanders has run for president in the last two open Democratic primaries, in 2016 and 2020, and twice finished as the runner-up. Yet even in defeat, the Vermont independent emerged as one of the country\u2019s leading voices on the left. Now, he is asserting that power in the 2026 elections.<\/p>\n
His endorsement list this year includes the most state and local selections since he issued a similar list in 2020<\/a>. It reflects a heightened desire to wield more influence in primary elections; his last such effort came in October, far after primary elections had ended. And the range is wide: He is backing candidates in 20 states, focused heavily on those running for state legislatures.<\/p>\n Mr. Sanders had already announced his support for a trio of Senate candidates \u2014 Graham Platner in Maine, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota \u2014 who have been at least initially opposed by the more moderate wing of the party. Mr. Platner\u2019s leading rival, Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out, making him the presumptive nominee.<\/p>\n Mr. Sanders said it was critical for progressives to gain power this year \u2014 both from Republicans allied with President Trump and from establishment leaders of the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n \u201cOur effort is to lead a national movement against Trump\u2019s authoritarianism and kleptocracy and unnecessary wars and his contempt for the Constitution,\u201d Mr. Sanders said. \u201cBut equally important, the American people need an alternative to the Democratic establishment, which is significantly dominated by big-money interests.\u201d<\/p>\n In his trademark gruff manner, Mr. Sanders made clear that he takes particular pride in the former organizers, activists and supporters of his past campaigns who now occupy prominent positions in the party and who have embraced many of his policy priorities, including addressing income inequality and improving workers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n He name-checked some of them, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Representative Ro Khanna of California, Representative Greg Casar of Texas and Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor who was on Mr. Sanders\u2019s last local endorsement slate in 2020 when he ran for State Assembly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever happened to that guy?\u201d Mr. Sanders joked.<\/p>\n His new list of endorsements, Mr. Sanders said, is focused on younger people. His advisers said at least some were recruited or mobilized as part of his \u201cFighting Oligarchy\u201d tour last year.<\/p>\n While Mr. Sanders has not personally met with each of the candidates, his team vetted them to find individuals, both Democrats and independents, who are allies of his movement, which Mr. Sanders said is focused on the working class.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we are trying to do is build a grass-roots, multiracial, working-class party that will stand up to the oligarchs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The endorsement list is both expansive and diverse.<\/p>\n In West Virginia, Mr. Sanders is backing the president of a local union for electricians, Dave Cantrell, who is running for the state\u2019s House of Delegates as an independent, after previously losing in 2024 as a Democrat.<\/p>\n In Iowa, he endorsed India May, a nurse who shouted \u201cpeople will die\u201d at the state\u2019s Republican senator, Joni Ernst, last year in a moment that went viral,<\/a> to serve in the State House.<\/p>\n