NEWPORT — The independent Vermont senator Bernie Sanders announced this morning that he is running for president. Sanders made the announcement in an email he sent to supporters and the media early Thursday morning. He will be running as a Democrat, and will provide Hillary Rodham Clinton with her first rival for the party’s nomination.
BELOW IS A COPY OF THE EMAIL THAT SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS SENT TO HIS SUPPORTERS
I am writing to inform you that I will be a candidate for President of the United States. I ask for your support.
Add your name to support my campaign.
For many months I have been traveling from coast to coast across our country, and have had the opportunity to meet with thousands of good, hard-working, and remarkable people. Like you and me, they are deeply concerned about the future of our country.
They wonder why they are working longer hours for lower wages. They worry about whether their kids will be able to afford college or get decent jobs. They fear that they may not have the savings to retire with dignity and security.
The challenges facing our country are enormous.
It’s not just that, for forty years, the middle class has been disappearing. It’s that 99% of all new income is going to the top 1%, and the grotesque level of wealth and income inequality today is worse than at any time since the late 1920s. The people at the top are grabbing all the new wealth and income for themselves, and the rest of America is being squeezed and left behind.
The disastrous decisions of the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case and in other related decisions are undermining the very foundations of American democracy, as billionaires rig the system by using their Super PACs to buy politicians and elections.
And the peril of global climate change, with catastrophic consequences, is the central challenge of our times and our planet.
The middle class in America is at a tipping point. It will not last another generation if we don’t boldly change course now.
After a year of travel, discussion and dialogue, I have decided to be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. But let’s be clear. This campaign is not about Bernie Sanders. It’s about a grassroots movement of Americans standing up and saying: “Enough is enough. This country and our government belong to all of us, not just a handful of billionaires.”
Our movement needs people like you involved to help it succeed. Add your name now to say you support my campaign for president.
I run not to oppose any man or woman, but to propose new and far-reaching policies to deal with the crises of our times. And I run because I know we must change course now, or risk losing the future for so many to the interests of so few.
A successful national campaign is a massive undertaking, especially when we will be heavily outspent. It will require the active participation of millions of Americans in every community in our country. In fact, it will require nothing less than a political revolution which combats the demoralization and alienation of so many of our people from the political process.
Let me be very honest. It may be too late to stop the billionaire class from trying to buy the Presidency and Congress. The forces of greed already may be too powerful.
But we owe it to our children and grandchildren to try. We owe it to them to make the fight and, through the power of our numbers, turn back this assault on the foundation of our democracy and our future.
We are at a moment of truth. We need to face up to the reality of where we are as a nation, and we need a mass movement of people to fight for change.
I believe America is ready for a new path to the future.
On May 26th I will formally launch our campaign at the City Hall in Burlington, Vermont, where I served as Mayor.
I ask you to join with me in our campaign for President of the United States.
Sincerely,
Senator Bernie Sanders
