He is the older brother of Bernie Sanders, United States Senator from Vermont and two-time U.S. presidential candidate.

[8][9][10] His father was born in Słopnice, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now part of Poland), on September 19, 1904,[11] immigrated to America in 1921 at age 17,[12][13] and supported his family by selling paint.

[14] Sanders said that when he was a child, his family never lacked food or clothing, but major purchases "like curtains or a rug" were difficult to afford.

He resigned from the board of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust in October 2005 in a principled stand amid concerns that proposed cuts to services would leave vulnerable patients at greater risk.

[29] He was the 7th-placed candidate for the Greens in the South East England constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom.

[30] Sanders was selected as the Green Party candidate for the Witney by-election after Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation as an MP in September 2016.

[38] Sanders ran as a Green Party candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon at the 2015 UK general election and finished in fifth place, receiving 2,497 votes, 4.4% of the total.