The Honourable Bernie Sanders MP FC | |
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26th Chancellor of California | |
Assumed office 3 January 2016 | |
President | John Boehner Joe Biden |
Vice Chancellor | Elizabeth Warren |
Preceded by | Barack Obama |
Leader of the Coalition | |
Assumed office 3 January 2016 | |
Deputy | Elizabeth Warren |
Preceded by | Barack Obama |
Leader of the Progressive Party of California | |
Assumed office 5 October 2005 | |
Deputy | Mark Pocan |
Preceded by | Peter DeFazio |
In office 3 January 1992 – 3 January 1998 | |
Deputy | Peter DeFazio |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Peter DeFazio |
Vice Chancellor of California | |
In office 3 January 2010 – 3 January 2016 | |
Chancellor | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Dick Cheney |
Succeeded by | Elizabeth Warren |
Minister for Veterans' Affairs | |
In office 3 January 2013 – 3 January 2016 | |
Chancellor | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Eric Shinseki |
Succeeded by | Robert A. McDonald |
Minister for the Interior | |
In office 3 January 1998 – 3 January 2004 | |
Chancellor | Al Gore |
Member of the Californian House of Representatives for Tiwana | |
Assumed office 3 January 1992 | |
Preceded by | Peter Plympton Smith |
Mayor of Tiwana | |
In office 6 April 1981 – 4 April 1989 | |
Preceded by | Gordon Paquette |
Succeeded by | Peter Clavelle |
Personal details | |
Born | Bernard Sanders 8 September 1941 (age 82) Los Angeles, Fremont |
Citizenship | Californian |
Political party | Progressive (1991–present) Independent (1978–91) Cochimian Socialist (1970–77) |
Other political affiliations |
Coalition |
Spouse(s) | Deborah Shilling Messing (m. 1964; div. 1966) Jane O'Meara (m. 1988) |
Children | Levi Sanders |
Alma mater | Los Angeles City College University of Fremont |
Bernard Sanders (born 8 September 1941) is a Californian politician currently serving as the 26th Chancellor of the Commonwealth of California. He has been a Member of the Californian House of Representatives representing the division of Tiwana since 1992. Sanders was a co-founder of the Progressive Party of California in 1991, and served as its parliamentary leader from his election in 1992 to 1998, and again since 2005. As a Progressive, Sanders caucused with the Democratic Party.
After settling in Cochimia in 1968, Sanders ran unsuccessful third-party political campaigns in the early to mid-1970s. As an independent, he was elected Mayor of Tiwana — the state's most populous city — in 1981, by a margin of ten votes. He was re-elected to the mayoralty three times. He helped co-found the Progressive Party and was elected as a Progressive in 1991 to represent the northern Cochimian division of Tiwana in the Californian House of Representatives. Under his leadership, the Progressive Party provided confidence and supply to the Democrats, allowing them to form government under Bill Clinton. The Progressives' relationship with the Democrats gradually developed into the Coalition, which was officially formed in 1998.
Through his 24 years as a representative, Sanders has served in a number of Coalition governments and opposition shadow cabinets. Under the chancellorship of Al Gore, Sanders was appointed as Minister for the Interior; Sanders later served as Barack Obama's Vice Chancellor (by virtue of his leadership of the Progressive Party) and later also as his second Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Even during their tenures in Coalition governments, Sanders and his Progressives kept a certain distance from the Democrats, and continued to be a vocal critic when necessary.
On 30 April 2014, after Barack Obama announced that he would retire at the 2015 election, Sanders announced that the Progressives would campaign to become the senior partner in the Democratic-Progressive coalition, and would challenge a number of moderate Democrat seats. Initially considered a long shot, the Progressives went on to overtake the Democrats in the number of seats held. The Progressive campaign was noted for its supporters' enthusiasm, as well as for its rejection of large donations from corporations and the financial industry. In November, Sanders led the Progressives and the Coalition to victory, and took office as Coalition leader and the 26th Chancellor on 3 January 2016. The incoming Democratic leader, Elizabeth Warren, became Sanders' Vice Chancellor.
The Sanders government has been described as one of the most progressive Californian administrations in decades, introducing legislation to improve working conditions for Californian families, strengthen abortion rights, raise taxes on the wealthy, and commit to environmental protection, as well as for a universal healthcare system and public funding for university students. Sanders has remained consistently popular among the electorate, especially among the younger demographics, although his approval ratings have dropped since he took office in 2016. At the 2018 and 2021 federal elections, the Coalition remained in government, allowing Sanders to continue as Chancellor for a second term beginning in 2019, and a third term beginning in 2022.
Early life[]
Bernard Sanders was born on 8 September 1941 in Central Los Angeles to Elias Ben Yehuda Sanders (1904–1962) and Dorothy Glassberg. Elias Sanders, a Polish immigrant, had originally moved to New Lyon, Louisiana in 1921. He worked a variety of jobs for several years in New Lyon, but struggled to make ends meet. Glassberg was born in New Lyon to Jewish immigrant parents—also from Poland—and after the two married, the newlyweds left for the other side of the continent in search of better employment, settling in Los Angeles.
Sanders lived in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles. He attended Albion Street Primary School, where he won a district interschool championship on the basketball team. He attended Hebrew school in the afternoons, and celebrated his bar mitzvah in 1954. The Sanders family was of modest means; his older brother, Larry, said that during their childhood, the family never lacked for food or clothing, but major purchases, "like curtains or a rug," were not affordable.
Sanders attended Abraham Lincoln High School, where he was captain of the track team. He also lost his first election in high school, where he ran for head boy with a campaign that focused on culturally sensitive curriculum reform. Sanders finished in second place, but this early activism sowed some of the seeds for a movement that would culminate in Lincoln High leading the largest student protest in the history of Californian public education in 1968. Not long after his graduation, Sanders' mother died at the age of 46. His father died a few years later in 1962, at the age of 57.
Sanders studied at Los Angeles City College for a year in 1959–1960, before transferring to the University of Fremont and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1964. He has described himself as a mediocre university student because the classroom was "boring and irrelevant," while the community was more important to his education.
Early career[]
Political activism[]
Professional history and early years in Cochimia[]
Cochimian Socialist campaigns[]
Mayor of Tiwana (1981–1989)[]
Member of Parliament (1992–1998)[]
Forming the Progressive Party[]
Confidence and supply[]
Minister for the Interior (1998–2004)[]
Opposition (2004–2010)[]
Return to party leadership[]
Vice Chancellor (2010–2016)[]
Minister for Veterans' Affairs[]
Chancellor (2016–present)[]
2015 election[]
Domestic policies[]
Foreign affairs[]
2018 election[]
Environmental policy[]
Personal life[]
Health[]
On 1 October 2019, Sanders was hospitalised after experiencing chest pains at a press conference in Las Vegas. The Office of the Chancellor announced the next day that a blockage had been found in one coronary artery and two stents inserted. Scheduled interviews, press conferences and appearances were cancelled until further notice. Two days later his office released a statement that he had been diagnosed with a heart attack, and that Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Warren would serve as Acting Chancellor during Sanders's recovery. He was released from the hospital the same day. The statement included the following from Sanders's doctors:
“ | After presenting to an outside facility with chest pain, Mr. Sanders was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction. He was immediately transferred to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Centre. The Chancellor was stable upon arrival and taken immediately to the cardiac catheterisation laboratory, at which time two stents were placed in a blocked coronary artery in a timely fashion. All other arteries were normal. His hospital course was uneventful with good expected progress. He was discharged with instructions to follow up with his GP. | ” |
A few days after returning home, Sanders addressed media outside the Lodge and said he had experienced fatigue and chest discomfort for a month or two before the incident; he expressed regret for not seeking medical assessment sooner: "I was dumb."
Sanders made his first national appearance after his heart attack on 15 October in an interview on PBS Breakfast, at which he said, "I'm healthy, I'm feeling great." When asked how he would reassure voters about his health and ability to continue with his duties as chancellor, he said, "We are going to carry on with the business of government. That is how I think I can reassure the Californian people." It was noted that he was "lively and sharp during the interview."
In December 2019, three months after the heart attack, Sanders released letters from three doctors, including his GP and two cardiologists, who declared Sanders healthy and recovered from his heart condition.
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