(Bloomberg Politics) — Looks like there will be a Democratic race after all.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is preparing to enter the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thrusday, according to a person familiar with Sanders’ plans. Sanders, who was elected in Vermont as an Independent, has decided to run for president as a Democrat.
Sanders will file FEC paperwork in the coming days and will hold a rally for his new campaign in May at City Hall in Burlington. Vermont Public Radio first reported the timing of Sanders’ announcement.
“I think we’re coming to the critical moment of truth here. He’s now spent enough time traveling around the country talking to people and feels there is genuinely a large audience of people who are with him,” Democratic strategist Tad Devine, an adviser to Sanders, told MSNBC last week.
Sanders has, like other prospective and declared presidential candidates, spent the past few months visiting states like Iowa and New Hampshire, that host the first caucuses and party primaries in the nation. With Massachusetts sticking with her decision to sit out the 2016 presidential election, Sanders is well positioned to challenge Clinton from the left.
“The American people want Secretary Clinton, all candidates, to talk about why the middle class continues to decline, why the rich get richer, why Wall Street continues to have unbelievable power over the American economy,” Sanders said in an April 15 interview with Bloomberg. “The American people not only want a serious debate on this campaign, they want candidates who will deal with the most important issue, and that is are we prepared to take on the billionaire class which has so much power over our economic and political life.”
