Kevin Hardy

kmhardy@dmreg.com

IOWA CITY, Ia. — Jane Sanders wishes her husband would talk more about himself. But for now, she's more than happy to help fill in some of the gaps.

Jane O'Meara Sanders has often stood by the side of her husband, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as he's traveled the country campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president. But this week, she undertook her first solo campaign events, in which she painted a more personal picture of her 74-year-old husband.

"I hear Bernie talk about issues all the time," she told a crowd of about 75 supporters in Iowa City. "But I kind of like to hear stories so that I can hang my hat on something."

Jane Sanders told the crowd how she first met Bernie during his run for mayor of Burlington, Vt., in 1981. At a neighborhood meeting, she asked the then-mayor a question about his unpopular proposal to raise taxes. Then a follow-up. Then another.

"He said, 'Now you sound like Bernie Sanders,' " she said. "I said, 'Who's Bernie Sanders?' "

A community organizer at the time, Jane Sanders orchestrated a mayoral debate. She said she fell in love with Bernie's ideas before falling for the man. Sanders won that election by 10 votes.

"It's an important lesson that stays with both of us all the time, that every vote definitely counts a lot," she said.

Jane Sanders' role on the campaign trail is more than that of a supportive wife. Her background is in education; she is the former president of Burlington College. But now, she's all-in on the campaign, serving as a top-level adviser who helps shape national strategy. At the campaign's headquarters, Bernie and Jane Sanders share an office with side-by-side desks.

When she travels with her husband in Iowa, Jane enthusiastically snaps pictures and shoots video on her phone, proudly transmitting the images back to the kids and grandkids. While her husband has commanded some of the largest crowds of the campaign, Jane has also become a much-loved figure among his supporters. At rallies, they clamor over her. And when she's not there, supporters sometimes ask the Vermont senator about her absence.

And her warm, more personal approach is serving as a contrast to her husband's sometimes-gruff personality and stubborn focus on his issues.

Jane Sanders held three solo campaign events Friday in eastern Iowa. In Iowa City, she told supporters how her husband repeatedly faced electability concerns — and defied them — as he ran for mayor, for Congress and the U.S. Senate.

"The thing is he can win," she said. "He can win if he has support from people like you that actually go out and vote for what you want and what you believe in, as opposed to settling for what you think that you can get."

Jane Sanders, who like her husband grew up in Brooklyn, said she wishes the world knew Bernie's softer side, his warm personality and his sharp sense of humor. But more importantly, she said she wants people to know he isn't some stiff ideologue. He's a guy who can get things done.

"People assume that because he talks about all these bold visions that he can't possibly make them happen. Well, that's not true," she told The Des Moines Register.

She told supporters of his mayoral accomplishments, how he fought for Social Security and last year ushered in a massive expansion of health care benefits for veterans. And she said a Sanders White House will always be focused on working families and the middle class.

She and her husband aren't Washington socialites. They don't attend black-tie affairs, she said, save for one visit to the White House to see Nelson Mandela.

"There were two men there without tuxedos: Nelson Mandela and Bernie Sanders," she said.

Her husband will use the bully pulpit of the presidency to fight for the commoner, she said, much like President Franklin D. Roosevelt did. And she believes his "political revolution" will help bring Americans into the political process, much like his tenure as mayor did years ago in Vermont.

Jane Sanders said her family's life has been drastically changed since the campaign began. For 25 years, her husband came home to Vermont every weekend. Now, he's campaigning across the country nearly nonstop.

The kids have chipped in, Jane said, making sure the house is stocked with fresh milk and bread on one of the Senator's rare trips back home. And now, any day that he's home means the house is full as the elder Sanderses play baseball, checkers and chess with their children and grandchildren.

"They all descend on the house. As soon as we come in, they're there," Jane Sanders said. "It's interesting because when he comes home now, he does nothing else but be with family."

JANE SANDERS ON THE TRAIL

Jane Sanders will campaign for her husband at Sunday's Hardin County Democrats Chili Spectacular at the Iowa Falls American Legion, 709 Oak Street. Tickets are required for the noon event. Contact marian.kuper@gmail.com for more information.