Jennifer Jacobs

jejacobs@dmreg.com

Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has said he's testing the waters for a 2016 presidential run, will be in Iowa again on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

Sanders will be the keynote speaker at the 2014 Progress Iowa Holiday Party at the Meadows Events and Conference Center in Altoona. He will "focus his remarks on creating a government that works for all Americans, not just the wealthy and well-off," according to a news release from Progress Iowa, a liberal group.

The keynote speaker at the 2013 event was former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

In a statement, Sanders said: "Big majorities of Americans understand that that the middle class is disappearing; unemployment is too high; wealth and income inequality is a threat; that corporate tax loopholes must be closed; that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid must not be cut; that global warming threatens our planet and that billionaires should not be allowed to buy elections. We should build on that unity. Progress Iowa has provided a strong voice in the fight for America's middle class, and I'm excited to speak with their supporters in December."

Sanders made trips to the presidential testing grounds of Iowa in May, September and October.

Here's the biography from the news release: "Bernie Sanders was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006 after serving 16 years in the House of Representatives. He is the longest serving independent member of Congress in American history. Born in 1941 in Brooklyn, Bernie was the younger of two sons in a modest-income family. After graduation from the University of Chicago in 1964, he moved to Vermont. Early in his career, Sanders was director of the American People's Historical Society. Elected Mayor of Burlington by 10 votes in 1981, he served four terms. Before his 1990 election as Vermont's at-large member in Congress, Sanders lectured at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and at Hamilton College in upstate New York. The Almanac of American Politics has called Sanders a 'practical' and 'successful legislator.'"

Tickets to the Progress Iowa Holiday Party are $50 each at progressiowa.org/holiday2014.