Updated at 7:19 p.m.
Vermonters handily reelected Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. on Tuesday.
The Associated Press called the race for Sanders the moment the polls closed in Vermont at 7 p.m.
Sanders, 83, served as mayor of Burlington in the 1980s and first won election to the U.S. House in 1990. He joined the Senate in 2007 and was vying for a fourth six-year term in the chamber. Though he is formally an independent, Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party.
The incumbent defeated Republican Senate nominee Gerald Malloy, a U.S. Army veteran and government contractor who criticized Sanders for what he called a record of inaction in Congress. Malloy previously ran for Senate in 2022, a race he lost to U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt.
Other candidates in the Senate race included independent Steve Berry, Epic Party nominee Mark Stewart Greenstein, Libertarian Party nominee Matt Hill and Peace and Justice Party nominee Justin Schoville.
Though Sanders had been widely expected to win his reelection bid, the results of Senate races throughout the country may challenge his ability to work effectively in Washington D.C., during his next term.
Sanders, whose influence in the Senate has only grown since his two presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020, took the helm of the Senate Budget Committee after the latter election. In that position he worked with President Joe Biden to craft the American Rescue Plan Act, which was designed to bolster the economy in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic but which was also blamed by Republicans for contributing to inflation.
In 2023, Sanders became chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, a position he has used to chip away at his lifelong goal of reforming the country’s health-care system.
Leading up to Tuesday’s elections, Democrats’ pathway to retaining a majority in the Senate appeared slim. Without the majority, Sanders would lose his chairmanship of the HELP committee.
The senator forged a close relationship with Biden throughout the last four years, hosting events and penning op-eds with the president. While Sanders has shared some skepticism about Vice President Kamala Harris’s policies — particularly in terms of whether she matches Biden’s progressive record — the senator traveled the country campaigning on her behalf and appealing for Americans to reject a Donald Trump presidency.
This story will be updated.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Sen. Bernie Sanders coasts to reelection.