Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is a 2020 Democratic candidate for president who previously ran against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. After years in local politics, Sanders became the junior United States Senator from Vermont in 2007 and was Vermont’s at-large Congressman from 1991 to 2007, then becoming the state’s senator. While identifying as an Independent and Democratic Socialist, Sanders is running for president as a Democrat.

Sanders is originally from Brooklyn, New York, where he attended Brooklyn College before going on to the University of Chicago in 1964. After moving to Vermont in 1968, he started running political campaigns in the 1970s and was eventually elected as mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981. He was reelected three times.

Bernie was married to Deborah Shiling from 1964 until 1966 and then married Jane O’Meara in 1988. He had his son Levi Sanders with former girlfriend Susan Campbell in 1969. He has three step-children from his wife, Jane: Dave and Carina Driscoll, and Heather Titus. To see photos of Senator Sanders, scroll through this gallery.