(CNN) Editor's Note: This story originally published on April 15, 2019. It has been updated to reflect the Democratic debate on February 19.



Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, came under fire on Wednesday over the wealth he's accumulated since his first presidential run in 2016.

Sanders in 2019 released a decade of tax returns that provided new insight into how he became a millionaire between his two presidential runs.



According to returns provided by his campaign in April 2019, Sanders and wife Jane's bottom line jumped from $240,622 in 2015, the year he launched his first White House bid, to $1,073,333 a year later, as the once obscure lawmaker became a political sensation on the left and a bestselling author with royalties pouring in.

Since that first run, Sanders and his wife made a total of more than $2.79 million, putting them in the category of the super-rich.

Sanders in a statement said last year the returns "show that our family has been very fortunate."

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