This story by Torrie Herrington was first published in NOTUS on Nov. 24, 2025.
A Bernie Sanders endorsement doesn’t always mean a primary win — some voters might even see it as a red flag. But for progressive and populist candidates, the Vermont senator’s stamp of approval can be a major boost.
So how does Sanders determine which candidates to back?
It comes down to values, strategy and who wants it, a spokesperson for Sanders’ campaign arm told NOTUS.
“Sen. Sanders is always interested in working with progressive candidates who are running strong grassroots campaigns, prepared to work hard, and want to challenge establishment status quo. He doesn’t endorse any candidate unless they want his endorsement,” Anna Bahr, communications director for Sanders, said in a statement to NOTUS.
For the 2026 election cycle, Sanders has endorsed three Democratic Senate candidates: Graham Platner in Maine, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota. For the House, he is backing Randy Villegas in California, Robert Peters in Illinois, Donavan McKinney in Michigan, Bob Brooks in Pennsylvania and Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin. He also endorsed Troy Jackson for Maine governor and Keith Ellison for Minnesota attorney general.
Joe Calvello, a senior adviser for the Platner campaign, said the campaign reached out for an endorsement because Platner has been a longtime supporter of Sanders. He said they were “extremely grateful” for the endorsement, which came at a “Fight the Oligarchy” rally in Portland, Maine, on Labor Day.
“To be able to do a big event with him in Portland was really special, to do that right when our campaign was getting off the ground,” said Calvello, who is also a former Sanders adviser.
In the 2024 election cycle, Sanders endorsed seven people in congressional races, five of whom lost their primary elections and two who went on to win in the general: Reps. Ilhan Omar and Summer Lee. On the state legislature level, Sanders endorsed four people in 2024, three of whom won.
Sanders-backed candidates have won big this year, particularly New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who received a Sanders endorsement in June in the Democratic primary. (The Mamdani campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the endorsement.)
In 2025, Sanders also endorsed Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who won her special election in Arizona, and he endorsed Susan Crawford, who won the general election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The only person Sanders endorsed who lost in 2025 was Joshua Weil in the special election for the U.S. House in Florida’s 6th Congressional District.
“I can tell you, talking to individuals who worked for Zohran Mamdani, who just won the mayoral race, they will tell you that when Sanders endorsed Mamdani, that had a huge impact on his support,” said Matthew Dickinson, a political science professor at Middlebury College in Vermont. “That legitimized him as a voice of the progressive left. So it can certainly have a big impact.”
He described an endorsement from Sanders as a “powerful tool.”
“Sanders is probably the individual with the most clout who represents that side of the Democratic Party, along with AOC,” Dickinson said of the senator and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “His endorsement, I think for that reason, might potentially carry more weight going forward, because the Democratic Party is searching for a winning message.”
That’s not to say it’s always a good thing. Dickinson said that for “people who don’t share Bernie’s opinions — it’s not going to have much impact on them. If anything, it might polarize them to oppose the candidate.”
El-Sayed told NOTUS he reached out to Sanders when he was thinking about getting into the race for Michigan’s open Senate seat. El-Sayed said he and Sanders have a “long relationship” — the senator also endorsed him in a failed 2018 bid for governor.
“As I was thinking about running, I certainly sought his counsel and his support. And I’m really grateful that he offered both,” El-Sayed said.
He said he hoped that he could be a senator in the mold of Sanders.
“Bernie has been fighting for working people his entire career, since before I was born, and that he sees that fight in this campaign … that means a lot to me,”El-Sayed said. “I look forward to carrying forward that kind of leadership and the work on behalf of working people in the U.S. Senate, hopefully, when I get to join him.”
A spokesperson for Flanagan, who is facing Rep. Angie Craig in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate primary, said Sanders’ endorsement shows off her progressive bona fides.
“Folks from across the country trust Bernie Sanders because of his unwavering commitment to working people, so his stamp of progressive approval means a lot to the movement Peggy is building,” campaign spokesperson Alexandra Fetissoff said in a statement to NOTUS.
Sen. Peter Welch, who represents Vermont alongside Sanders, was endorsed by Sanders when he launched his Senate bid in 2021.
“It was very helpful,” Welch said. “Bernie is one of the few senators whose endorsement has a lot of punch.”
