Bernie Sanders has attracted a devoted army of fans since announcing his bid for the White House. But none are likely to have supported his presidential campaign longer than Tony Lussier who, three decades ago, when he was an 11-year-old boy, may well have been the first to encourage Sanders to run for president.



A letter written by Lussier when he was a sixth-grade student at a Vermont high school – and when Sanders was an independent, socialist mayor of Burlington – has been uncovered by the Guardian in an archive of mayoral papers.

“I’m 11 years old and I’m in 6th grade,” Lussier wrote to Sanders, who had been re-elected the city mayor months earlier. “I’m a big fan of yours. One day I hope you run for president. If you did run for president I would do some campaigning for you.”

Lussier, who is now 41 and a truck driver in the New England area, told the Guardian he has a vague recollection of writing the note after learning about socialism during a class at Highgate central school.

Letter from Tony Lussier to Bernie Sanders. Photograph: Handout

Lussier said he remains a supporter of “Bernie”, as the independent senator is almost universally known in Vermont, and would probably vote for him in the forthcoming Democratic primary contest.

“If I was going to vote, I would vote for Bernie,” he said, adding that he was impressed by the senator’s push to address income inequality as well as his opposition to the emerging trans-Pacific trade deal – which some truckers believe could damage the haulage industry.

Lussier’s letter was unearthed by the Guardian during research for a profile of Sanders published last week. It was stored amid 50 boxes of archive papers kept by the University of Vermont in Burlington.

The files contain thousands of pages of letters to and from Sanders, who was mayor between 1981 and 1989, a period that laid the foundations for his subsequent congressional career. The files reveal Sanders was a responsive mayor who nearly always took care to reply to correspondence.

Letter from Bernie Sanders to Tony Lussier. Photograph: Handout

That extended to 11-year-old Lussier, who lived 40 miles away, near the Canadian border, and was not a Burlington resident. Sanders nonetheless thanked the schoolboy for his “support and encouragement”.

“Letters such as yours are few and far between,” he told him.

Sanders went on to divulge some of the challenges faced as a socialist leader in City Hall. “Although the job as Mayor is not an easy one, it is particularly hard when your beliefs are counter to the system you are employed by,” Sanders confided in his young interlocutor. “It has been a very difficult four years with lots of conflicts and battles.”

Lussier, who still lives in Vermont, said he had lost his interest in politics somewhat since leaving school. Asked if he would see through his offer to campaign for Sanders, the truck driver was less than committal, but suggested he might.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” he said. “My time is a little bit limited, so I can’t dedicate that much.”