Bernie Sanders

U.S. Senator from Vermont - Administered oath at Mamdani's public ceremony

Just after midnight on January 1, 2026, a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist placed his hands on two historic Qurans in an abandoned subway station beneath City Hall and became mayor of New York City. Zohran Mamdani's swearing-in capped a remarkable six-year journey from foreclosure counselor to state assemblyman to leader of America's largest city—the first Muslim, first South Asian, and youngest mayor in generations. Within hours, he signed his first executive orders targeting landlords and creating task forces to accelerate housing construction.

Updated Feb 5

U.S. Senator, Vermont (Independent) - Lead sponsor of Raise the Wage Act seeking $17 federal minimum by 2030

On January 1, 2026, nineteen states raised their minimum wages—some by pennies, others by dollars—while Congress let the federal floor sit untouched at $7.25 for the sixteenth straight year. Washington state now leads at $17.13 an hour. Missouri and Nebraska hit $15. Hawaii jumped $2 in one leap. The increases will pump $5 billion into the pockets of 8.3 million workers this year.

Updated Jan 30

U.S. Senator (I-VT), Chair of Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee - First federal legislator to call for national data center moratorium

Since late 2022, U.S. regulators and utilities have warned that a new class of digital infrastructure—AI-optimized data centers—could reshape national power demand, ending an era of flat electricity consumption and forcing a rapid buildout of generation and transmission. By early 2026, those warnings have crystallized into concrete challenges: PJM Interconnection's December 2025 capacity auction hit the $333.44/MW-day price cap and failed to meet reliability requirements for the first time in its history, with data centers accounting for $6.5 billion—or 40%—of the auction's $16.4 billion in costs. Regional grid operators now project U.S. data center electricity consumption will grow from 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024 to over 400 TWh by 2030, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates data centres globally could more than double their electricity use to approximately 945 TWh in the same timeframe, with AI-optimized servers as the main driver.

Updated Jan 27