He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1921 to 1935 sitting with the United Farmers caucus in government.

He defeated incumbent MLA Edward Prudden with a landslide majority to pick up the seat for his party.

He faced a three way battle, and lost a significant portion of his popular vote from the previous election but still took the district with a sizable majority over the other candidates.

Sanders managed to hang on and win his seat taking just over half the popular vote.

He would be defeated in a landslide by Social Credit candidate Charles Cockroft finishing a distant third in the four way race.