Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) confirmed he’ll run for re-election next year as an independent candidate.
“I am an independent, and I have always run in Vermont as an independent, while I caucus with the Democrats in the United States Senate,” Sanders said in an interview with New Hampshire’s Concord Monitor. “That’s what I’ve been doing for a long time and that’s what I’ll continue to do.”
Sanders, 76, is serving his second term in the Senate after winning re-election in 2012 with 71 percent of the vote. Last year, he was appointed to the Senate Democratic leadership team as outreach director.
Sanders’ visit to New Hampshire was his second in two months, fueling speculation that he’ll make another run for president in 2020. His win against Hillary Clinton in the Granite State during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary helped launch a long and bitter battle for the nomination.
An early poll of the 2020 race by the University of New Hampshire last week found Sanders ahead in the state with 31 percent support from Democratic voters, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden with 24 percent and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with 13 percent.