The Rise of Bernie Sanders

The+Rise+of+Bernie+Sanders

Maria Alvarez (12th), Reporter

“FEEL THE BERN!” is the phrase printed for campaigning as expressed on Bernie Sanders’ official merchandise for presidency in 2016. Among the printed merchandise on the website, there are t-shirts, mugs, hand bags, stickers, and more.

According to Sanders’ official website, Bernie Sanders is a Democratic candidate running for President of the United States in 2016. Sanders’ is currently in second place among the Democratic candidates running for president, with Hillary Clinton in the lead.

Clinton was originally confident that she was going to win the election but then Sanders appeared. Sanders is currently on her heels among the Democratic candidates running for president.

Before Sanders got involved in politics, he attended the University of Chicago and was the graduating class of ’64.

Right after graduating, he moved to Vermont and eventually became mayor of Burlington in 1981. Sanders’ didn’t start running for congress until 2006 where he was elected Vermont’s sole congressman for the House of Representatives.

In 2012, he won re-election for his 2nd term in the U.S. Senate with 71% of the vote.

Now in 2015, Sanders’ campaign is gaining momentum. In a recent poll conducted by Politico magazine, Sanders received a 41% in favorability compared to Clinton’s 40%.

According to Forbes, over the last 7 days Sanders has reached a new high for all the Democratic mentions with a 35.9%, while fellow Democratic candidates Martin O’ Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee have fallen under 1%.

While Sanders has been rising, Clinton, on the other hand, is having troubles with the focus of her candidacy. Her media image has taken a hit with the repetitive coverage of the scandal about her use of a private email server when she ran for Secretary of State.

According to Politico, although Clinton is still dominating the Democratic polls as a whole, Sanders drew a higher net favorability rating of 78% to 6%, compared to Clinton with a 76% to 20%.

Sanders also drew a high share of trustworthiness marks with an 86% compared to Clinton’s, which drew up a 64%.

Clinton may still have a strong support with a long list of celebrities backing her, but the list of supporters for Sanders only gets better as each day goes by.

Among that list of celebrity supporters are Sarah Silverman, Will Ferrell, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Cohen – the owner of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (which has its main HQ located in Vermont), Cole Sprouse, and Danny DeVito. Sanders’ campaign has been so influential that he has even received celebrity supporters who have never endorsed other candidates before, such as Lil B, as reported by Variety.

Recently, ABC News reported that at his Boston rally in Massachusetts, Sanders’ attracted a crowd of over 20,000 people, filling up the entire stadium floor at the Boston Exhibition and Convention Center. A few thousand supporters who couldn’t fit inside the building, remained to watch the speech on screens outside the center.

The prospects are looking good for Bernie Sanders in this upcoming presidential election but it’s still anyone’s game.