(JTA)— Jewish senator Bernie Sanders is set to announce officially his presidential campaign.
Sanders, 73, who was born in Brooklyn to Polish immigrant parents, will officially launch his 2016 campaign at an event starting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday in Burlington, Vermont. The self-described democratic socialist is an Independent but will run for president as a Democrat.
Sanders, who was the mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989, is currently the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and previously was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
He will be a long shot to capture the party’s nomination, as Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and U.S. senator, still leads the other potential Democratic candidates by over 50 percentage points.
