In the 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sought the Democratic Party's nomination in a field of six major candidates and was the runner up with 46% of the pledged delegates behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who won the contest with 54%.

Although Sanders lost, he and the political movement his campaign created succeeded in moving the Democratic Party platform as a whole to the left, including support for a $15 minimum wage, marijuana legalization, the abolition of capital punishment, and criminal justice reform.

[26] In a November 2013 interview, Sanders laid out several reasons for mounting his own presidential run, including global warming (current climate change), economic inequality, frustration with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, and the importance of maintaining public programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

[36] Critics alleged that the small number of debates and the schedule, with four of the ten on Saturday or Sunday nights, were part of the DNC's deliberate attempt to protect the front-runner, Hillary Clinton.

"[39] In a preview of his campaign, Sanders told the Associated Press on April 29, 2015, that he would release "very specific proposals" to increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations, offer free higher education at public universities, and pass a single‑payer Medicare-for-All healthcare system.

Sanders was frequently questioned on the controversy over Hillary Clinton's use of an unauthorized and unsecured private e-mail server for her correspondence as Secretary of State, and he consistently refused to use the allegations of wrongdoing in his campaign message.

According to Politico, "the Hillary Victory Fund appears to be pushing the bounds of joint fundraising in its online advertising campaign, which has included many ads urging readers to "Stop Trump" or to support Clinton."

"[64] Sanders's fundraising efforts have been seen as highly innovative in relying on online communication with voters and proving that a modern candidate can win presidential primaries without the support of Super PACs and big donors.

Sanders replied, "I wouldn't use the word 'rigged' [...] but what is really dumb is that you have closed primaries, like in New York State, where three million people who are Democrats or Republicans could not participate, where you have a situation where over 400 superdelegates came on board Clinton's campaign before anybody else was in the race, eight months before the first vote was cast."

[76] On the following day Sanders spoke to a crowd of 28,000 supporters at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon,[77] and on August 10 more than 27,000 people showed up for his rally in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

[90] He won the New Hampshire Democratic primary on February 9, 2016, by 22.4% of the vote (60.4% to Clinton's 38.0%), receiving strong support from voters who considered it important to nominate a candidate who is "honest and trustworthy".

It was widely reported that some shoving, and throwing of chairs and other objects, ensued before Nevada Democratic Party Chairwoman Roberta Lange ended the convention early, but no actual evidence of chair-throwing ever emerged.

"[105] Sanders responded, "Our campaign of course believes in non-violent change and it goes without saying that I condemn any and all forms of violence, including the personal harassment of individuals," but added that his supporters had not been treated with "fairness and respect.

[114] On April 14, 2016, Sanders fired the campaign's national Jewish outreach coordinator, Simone Zimmerman, after it was discovered that she had used foul language to describe the Prime Minister of Israel and Hillary Clinton on Facebook.

ABC News wrote, "Bernie Sanders' win in Michigan will go down as the stunner of the election cycle to date, handing his campaign a fresh rationale and new evidence of his rival's vulnerabilities at a critical time in the race.

"[145] The first night of the Democratic National Convention was frequently disrupted with booing and chanting by a segment of Sanders's campaign workers termed the "Bernie or Bust" contingent.

Calling themselves "Occupy CNN", they claimed that major media networks had intentionally minimized Sanders's airtime in favor of candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

[179] Saturday Night Live (SNL) highlighted Sanders in its October 17, 2015, cold open with comedian Larry David portraying him in a parody[180] of the first Democratic Primary Presidential debate, which had aired four days earlier on CNN.

"[182] David portrayed Sanders again on SNL's November 7, 2015, cold open, a parody of a Democratic candidates' forum hosted by Rachel Maddow that had aired on MSNBC earlier that week.

[187][188][189][190][191][192] Founded by Arizona State University political science sophomore student Colten Caudle and co-owner David Boni on February 17, 2016,[190] Bernie Singles became a trending topic on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.

[208][209] Among the organizations that worked to elect Sanders without any formal affiliation with his campaign was People for Bernie, an online group that grew out of the Occupy movement[210] and was active in sending protesters to shut down Donald Trump rallies.

"[229][230] Sanders introduced amendments to Senate bills that promote the creation of millions of middle-class jobs by investing in infrastructure, paid for by closing loopholes in the corporate and international tax system.

[246] As chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, Sanders introduced legislation to reauthorize and strengthen the Older Americans Act, which supports Meals on Wheels and other programs for seniors.

He frequently criticized warrantless wiretapping and the collection of the phone, email, library, and internet browsing records of American citizens without due process:[257] In my view, the NSA is out of control and operating in an unconstitutional manner.

Sanders believed tax reform was the solution and developed a plan to bring matching grants from the federal and state governments to cut tuition at public universities by more than half.

"[268] As part of his 2016 presidential platform, Sanders called for an end to "the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.

"[269][270] Speaking on these issues, Sanders said: It is an obscenity that we stigmatize so many young Americans with a criminal record for smoking marijuana, but not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for causing the near collapse of our entire economy.

It's time to stop demonizing minority communities.In 2007, Sanders helped kill a bill introducing comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that its guest-worker program would depress wages for American workers.

[271] Sanders voted for the comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013,[272] saying, "It does not make a lot of sense to me to bring hundreds of thousands of [foreign] workers into this country to work for minimum wage and compete with American kids."

[290] Sanders qualified to receive votes as a write-in candidate in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Iowa, Vermont, Washington and Oregon.