Sanders Bernie - Outsider in the White House

Bernie Sanders

with Huck Gutman

Foreword by Nina Turner

Afterword by John Nichols

This updated edition of Outsider in the House first published 2019

First published by Verso 1997

Bernie Sanders 1997, 2015, 2019

Preface Bernie Sanders 2015, 2019

Afterword John Nichols 2015, 2019

Foreword Nina Turner 2019

All rights reserved

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Verso

UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG

US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201

versobooks.com

Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

ISBN-13: 978-1-78873-769-2

ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-419-5 (US EBK)

ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-420-1 (UK EBK)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Library of Congress Catalogued the Previous Edition as Follows:

Sanders, Bernard, author.

[Outsider in the House]

Outsider in the White House / Bernie Sanders with Huck Gutman ; afterword by
John Nichols. Updated edition.

pages cm

Original edition published in 1997 under title: Outsider in the House.

ISBN 978-1-78478-418-8 ISBN 978-1-78478-419-5
ISBN 978-1-78478-420-1

1. Sanders, Bernard. 2. Presidential candidatesUnited StatesBiography. 3.
LegislatorsUnited StatesBiography. 4. United States. Congress. House
Biography. 5. United StatesPolitics and government1989- I. Gutman, Huck,
1943 II. Title.

E840.8.S26A3 2015

328.73092dc23
[B]

2015031867

Typeset in Fournier MT by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh, Scotland
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

I have always believed that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke a powerful truth when he said, The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. I think this is especially true when someone is running for the presidency. So I understand why people want to know more about Senator Bernie Sanders. It is one thing to cheer for the senators speeches and policies, but it is something else to get a sense of how his lived experience has led him to be so passionately committed to economic, social, and racial justice. There is a hunger to know more about the man we all call Bernie. And it will only continue to grow.

I write this as someone who has come to know Senator Bernie Sanders very well. Our journey together began after many of the events recounted in this book occurred, but before he was the national figure he is today. And that is a good place to begin.

Bernie has become such a vital figure in our politics that it may be hard for some folks to remember that there was a time not so long ago when he was battling to be heard. I was one of those who heard him back then, and I want people to understand how powerful that was, for me and for a great many Americans like me. He had first come to light for me in a very deep way in 2010, when he filibustered for eight and a half hours against the extension of George W. Bushs tax cuts. Watching him stand strong and boldly against just about everyone else in Washington on that one issue, an issue that was so important for working people, thats when he caught my attention in a unique way. It was not until several years later, however, that I came to see him as a presidential prospect.

I had a feeling of heaviness coming off of the 2014 mid-term elections. So many of us had tried so hard. I was one of the many Democrats who had run and lost that year. As a state senator who had long been involved in voting rights struggles, I was so proud to be the Democratic nominee in the great state of Ohio for the office of Secretary of State. My campaign sought to do something that had never been done before, which was to elect an African American woman to statewide office in Ohio. We thought we could make a breakthrough that would matter in Ohio, and nationally. But it wasnt to be. The Republican wave that swept across the country that year hit Ohio particularly hard. Democrats were losing everywhere. We had always known that our campaign was going against the odds, that we were running against entrenched incumbents more monied than we were. I hated losing, but I knew that my defeat was part of something biggerand I knew that Democrats were going to have to address it. That made me all the more attentive to the 2016 presidential race.

What was going through my mind then was a question: How do I rally Democrats to feel better about the future? So when I was approached to help Ready for Hillary, the group that was preparing for Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign, I was open to it. Early in 2015 it seemed as if there might be only one candidate making a serious bid for the Democratic nomination, and I wanted to do my part for my party.

Then, in came Bernie Sanders from Vermont. I was aware of the senator as someone who had been on the right side of the issues over the years. When 2015 hit and he was out there saying that he was thinking about running for president, something started percolating in me. Ill never forget that my husband had seen him on TV, and he called me. He said, Baby, this candidate Bernie Sanders and I said, Yeah, I know who he is. And my husband said, Hes going to run, and I think this is your candidate. This person reminds me of you.

Not long after that, I watched the senators announcement, and I said, Wow. There was a feeling that came over me, like a quickening, as we would say in the black church. I had an awakening. It was one of those moments when your consciousness is pierced. You cant sleep, you cant eat, you cant think. I knew I couldnt just continue to go along the path Id been on. I had to change courseand thats what I did. I was an official in the Ohio Democratic Party, so I called my chair and said, Look, you know, I think Im going to endorse Senator Sanders. I remember him saying, Do you have to do that? Can you just wait until the primary? I said, No, I have to do this. Have to do it. I have no choice.

What Bernie Sanders was saying about the issues spoke to me so deeply. It connected with my life. I had these flashbacks about my mother, who died at a very young age. My mother died underinsured. So when he was talking about Medicare for All, that touched me. I am a first-generation college graduate, and I know that I have the opportunities I have right now, degrees that I have right now, because I was able to become a cycle breaker using higher education as a path. I dont think I would have as much opportunity as I have to this day without it. So when he talked about College for All, that got to me where I live.

There were all these touchpoints that just spoke to me. But what struck me most powerfully, and what makes this book so important, is that Bernie Sanders has been speaking to all of us for all these many years about how the system is rigged against poor people, against working people, against the vast majority of Americans who only want a fair chance to live a good life. We are all different, but Bernie reminds us that we all have things in common. Hes been making that point for decades. Its in his heart. And it touches my heart because I come from a working-class family. I grew up in a single-mother household. I saw my mother struggle every single day to provide for seven childrento provide for our material needs, but also to provide for our emotional needsand so I heard everything that he was saying about the poor as if he was speaking directly to me. It touched me where I live. It engulfed me and I was just automatically drawn to his truth from my lived experience.