Bernie Sanders launches 2016 presidential campaign

Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Bernie Sanders on 2016: 'Don't Underestimate Me' Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders warns not to underestimate him in the 2016 Democratic race for the White House. In an AP interview, Sanders, who is formally launching his campaign Tuesday, said he has a strong message that's already resonating. (May 25)

BURLINGTON, Vt. — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., pulled out all the stops Tuesday at his presidential campaign launch in Burlington, as he outlined his role in "a political revolution to transform the country — economically, politically, economically and environmentally."

"Brothers and sisters, now is not the time for thinking small," he told a large crowd at Waterfront Park. "Now is not the time for the same old same old. Now is the time for millions of working families to revitalize American democracy."

With the backdrop of Lake Champlain and its procession of boats large and small, Sanders vowed to steer the the country away from an economy defined increasingly by income inequality.

Not only is the model "profoundly wrong," he said, "it is immoral, bad economics and unsustainable."

To the nation's billionaires, Sanders added, "You can't have it all."

Sanders is trying to ignite a grassroots fire among left-leaning Democrats wary of front-runner Hillary Clinton — a group that pined for months for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to get in the race. Some still do.

But while Warren remains committed to the Senate, repeatedly saying she won't run for the White House, Sanders is laying out an agenda in step with the party's progressive wing and Warren's platform — reining in Wall Street banks, tackling college debt and creating a government-financed infrastructure jobs program.

Clinton is in a commanding position by any measure, far in front of both Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is widely expected to get into the race Saturday.

Yet Sanders' supporters in New Hampshire say his local ties and longstanding practice of holding town hall meetings and people-to-people campaigning — a staple in the nation's first primary state — will serve him well.

"Toward the Vermont border it's like a love-fest for Bernie," said Jerry Curran, an Amherst, New Hampshire, Democratic activist who has been involved in the draft Warren effort. "He's not your milquetoast left-winger. He's kind of a badass left-winger."

Sanders, who often votes with the Democrats, has raised more than $4 million since announcing in late April that he would seek the party's nomination. He suggested in the interview that raising $50 million for the primaries was a possibility. "That would be a goal," he said.

Sanders was introduced Tuesday at the waterfront rally by speakers who outlined, in less specific terms, the senator's major premise: that the country's working families need him to advance their cause.

"Bernie knows how to get us there," declared Donna Bailey, executive director of the Addison County Parent/Child Center.

Bill McKibben, a climate activist and author, followed Bailey.

"Yo, Bernie!" McKibben began, and thanked the senator for kicking off the campaign in Vermont.

An unprecedented diversity of voters in the Green Mountain State voted Sanders into office, he continued: "They know that he always means what he says and he always stands for what he believes. What you see is what you get."

Brenda Torpy, CEO of Champlain Housing Trust, credited Sanders with revitalizing Burlington, particularly the creation and preservation of affordable housing.

"He lives and breathes this commitment," Torpy said.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream, pitched in.

"It's no accident that corporate profits are through the roof while wages are stagnant," Cohen told the crowd.

Sanders has resisted the influence of large business interests in Washington — "legalized bribery" — Cohen said. "Finally, a candidate worth voting for."

A campaign news release noted that Bailey, Torpy, Cohen and Greenfield represented themselves and not their organizations.

Earlier, in the uncharacteristically steamy afternoon, dozens of supporters lined up for free scoops of Ben & Jerry's ice cream and danced to zydeco music along the sun-washed and flag-draped Waterfront Park.

Sanders, a former Burlington mayor, was joined for the announcement by his wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders.

Contributing: The Associated Press