Vermont senator presses Democrats to confront billionaire donors and corporate power

Sen. Bernie Sanders cast the coming election for Senate Democratic leader between Chuck Schumer and Chris Van Hollen as a decision about the direction of the Democratic Party, writing in an opinion essay published in The Guardian on Nov. 13, 2026. Sanders argued the contest is not a personality rivalry but a debate over who the party serves.

“This is not a personality contest. This is a debate about the future of the Democratic party,” Sanders wrote. He described the choice as whether the party “remains a top-down party dominated by billionaire campaign contributors, inside-the-beltway consultants and 30-second TV ads,” or whether it can be transformed “into a grassroots party of, by and for the working families of our country.”

Sanders wrote that the leadership election will decide whether Democrats “continue to tinker around the edges and maintain status quo policies, or whether we finally have the courage to take on enormously powerful special interests and address the unprecedented crises that we face.”

He then set out a series of questions he said the party must answer. The first, Sanders wrote, is whether Democrats address “the issue of oligarchy, obscene income and wealth inequality, and the reality that never before in the history of our country have so few people held so much wealth and so much power.”

The second, he wrote, is “a corrupt campaign finance system and their Super Pacs, which enables billionaires to buy elections and undermine our democracy.” Sanders also asked whether the party would address the reality that, in his words, “60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country and millions of seniors are unable to retire with dignity.”

On health care, Sanders described the current system as “dysfunctional, wildly expensive” and said the United States is “the only major country on earth that does not guarantee healthcare for all as a human right.”

Sanders also singled out artificial intelligence, calling it “the most transformative technology in history” and writing that it “is being pushed down our throats by a handful of big tech billionaires who couldn’t care less about the wellbeing of ordinary Americans.”

On climate, Sanders pointed to “deadly heatwaves, massive forest fires, drought and extreme weather disturbances” that he said will worsen without a transformation of “our energy systems away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.”

On immigration, Sanders wrote that the system “is broken” and described ICE as “a domestic army that has killed Americans in cold blood and has acted in cruel, illegal and unconstitutional ways.”

On foreign policy, Sanders wrote that “the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and the current war in Iran were based on lies” and called for a fundamental rethinking of US foreign policy, including “continued military funding to the extremist government in Israel.”

“Bottom line: whether we like it or not, our country faces some extraordinary and unprecedented crises,” Sanders wrote, asking whether Democrats will “seriously address these difficult challenges, and restore the faith of the American people that their government can improve their lives, or do we continue the same old, same old politics.”

“In large measure, that is what this Senate Democratic leadership election is all about,” Sanders concluded. He is a US senator and ranking member of the health, education, labor and pensions committee, represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.