The political positions of Bernie Sanders are reflected by his United States Senate voting record, public speeches, and interviews. He is a self-described democratic socialist. Bernie Sanders is an independent senator from Vermont who has served in government since 1981.

Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for president in the 2016 United States presidential election. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016.