Will Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders run for re-election as a Democrat? Some Democratic National Committee members hope so.

DNC member Bob Mulholland of California tried on Friday to get a DNC panel to pass a resolution urging Sanders and Sen. Angus King of Maine, both independents, to run for re-election as Democrats in 2018. But the committee defeated it, denying the resolution a vote before the full DNC on Saturday at its meeting in Las Vegas.

Mulholland said he had three co-sponsors for the resolution, which says King and Sanders "have contributed enormously to key Democratic causes." He said it was rejected after a Vermont member discussed the party's long relationship with Sanders.

“It would help if everybody who believes in the Democratic Party platform actually said, ‘I am a Democrat,’ ” Mulholland told USA TODAY.

Sanders, whose state has no party registration, is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. But he ran as a Democrat in the 2016 presidential primary.

“I don’t want this to be a one night stand,” Mulholland said.

Both Sanders and King caucus with Senate Democrats.

Sanders hasn’t announced whether he’ll run for re-election or indicated whether he would run again as an independent.

During Sanders’ presidential primary bid, Mulholland — who supported Hillary Clinton — wrote a highly publicized letter alleging that Sanders' supporters had bullied superdelegates with “harassing emails, Facebook postings and phone calls” demanding that they support the Vermont senator.

But he said having Sanders and King run as Democrats would help recruit young voters.

If Democrats aren’t pushing their brand, he said, “pretty soon we’ll be in secondhand stores.”

Related:Bernie Sanders' party affiliation? Not a simple question