Former carpenter and writer elected Mayor of Burlington VT in 1981, then elected to Congress in 1991 and to the U.S. Senate in 2007. Campaigned as an independent, and caucuses with the Democrats. As a college student, he participated in the 1963 March on Washington, and worked as an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Raised in Brooklyn, which still resonates in his accent, but has called Vermont home since 1964.
