Sen. Bernie Sanders campaigning in Concord, N.H., in March 2019 Credit: File: Paul Heintz
The U.S. Senate held 70 roll-call votes last month, but the junior senator from Vermont showed up for just seven of them.

As he wages a race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is facing the familiar question of when to focus on the job he’s seeking — and when to focus on the job he already has.

Though Sanders missed more votes in July than the six other U.S. senators seeking the presidency, his overall attendance rate this year is better than that of two rivals. According to a Seven Days analysis of the 262 roll-call votes the Senate has held since January 8, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has missed the most: 118, or 45 percent. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), meanwhile, has missed 116, or 44.3 percent.

Sanders and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) are tied for third in truancy, with 105 missed votes, or 40 percent. The remaining three senator-candidates have missed far fewer votes:

  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.): 74, or 28.2 percent
  • Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.): 71, or 27.1 percent
  • Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.): 60, or 22.9 percent.
Sanders, who launched his presidential campaign on February 19, had a relatively robust attendance rate until this summer, when debate season began. From January through May, he missed just nine of 129 votes. In June and July, however, he skipped 93 out of 130.

In a written statement to Seven Days, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir said, “Bernie has made a commitment over this next year to give it his best shot to run for President and win. He’s all in. That sometimes comes at the expense of missing a few Senate votes, but if there are ever any votes that hinge on his presence, he will certainly be there.”
Credit: Sean Metcalf

It’s true that many of the votes Sanders skipped were lopsided ones pertaining to the nominations of federal judges, U.S. attorneys and sub-cabinet administration officials. Others were on more pressing matters, such as funding the Department of Defense, suspending the debt limit and seeking to override President Donald Trump’s veto of resolutions blocking arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Not surprisingly, Vermont’s other two congressional delegates — neither of whom are running for president — have racked up solid attendance records this year. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has missed just three votes, or 1.2 percent, while Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) has missed 12 of the 502 roll-call votes the U.S. House has held, or 2.3 percent.

This isn’t the first time Sanders has put his presidential ambitions ahead of his senatorial responsibilities. As Seven Days reported during his 2018 Senate reelection race, he missed nearly 71 percent of the roll-call votes held during calendar year 2016, when he first sought the presidency.

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According to an analysis by the nonpartisan research service GovTrack, Sanders’ truancy rate is far higher now than it was during an equivalent period of the 2016 campaign. From late January through late August of 2015, he missed just 4 percent of the 232 votes held.

At a Senate candidate forum last fall in Winooski, Sanders declined to commit to serving out a third term if reelected, noting that he may run for — and win — the presidency. He also refused to promise that his Senate attendance rate would improve.

“I ran for president of the United States,” Sanders said at the time, explaining his missed votes earlier that term. “And when you run for president of the United States, you actually go around the country. You have to campaign in order to do that.”

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Paul Heintz was part of the Seven Days news team from 2012 to 2020. He served as political editor and wrote the "Fair Game" political column before becoming a staff writer.

11 replies on “Sanders’ Senate Attendance Dwindles as Campaign Heats Up”

  1. Impeach him.

    It was one thing for Sanders to get re-elected to the Senate in 2012 and then be an absentee Senator in 2016. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that when he ran for re-election in 2012 he didn’t know he’d be running for President in 2016 and abdicating his responsibilities as Vermont’s Senator.

    But when he ran for re-election in 2018 he absolutely knew he’d be running for President again. He ran for reelection as Vermont’s Senator in 2018 knowing full well he wouldn’t be spending any time in the Senate, i.e., doing the job he ran for. His reelection to the Senate was a fraud on Vermonters. He could have run for President without seeking reelection to the Senate.

  4. The biggest problem with our government is politicians that get elected and serve for life. Once they get access to the money and power their position brings them you just cannot get rid of them. If Bernie never showed up for another Senate vote Vermonters will just still keep on electing him.
    Same with Patrick and Peter. We really do need term limits.
    So he will spend another year prance around the country on his soapbox, not get elected and put a couple of more million in the bank.

  5. That’s true but look at trump wasting taxpayers money doing nothing except for going to his clubs and playing golf all of the time… Thank god he will be out of there next year unless he gets impeached! There has to be term limits placed on the house and senate but it’s doubtful that it will ever get passed by the old men!!

  6. hE KNEW HE WAS GOING TO RUN EACH TIME. What difference does it make, he doesn’t do anything for Vermont, to begin with. !!! Only reason he’s running again is so he can put donations in his checking account and to be paid millions again off to leave the race like he was with the first race.. Wake up he’s in it just for the money. What really happened to the bank fraud charges against the Sanders that 7 days did an article on???

  7. Mitch McConnell has castrated the Senate. Bernie is using his candidacy to keep the issues he has been championing for decades alive and in the view of the voters. What else is he supposed to do, sit at home and let McConnell, Trump and the rest just continue to stomp on our country and our Constitution without opposition?

  8. Are you really suggesting that Bernie is trying to make the Senate work by running for President? That’s a laffer. There are plenty of ways Bernie could work against legislative gridlock WITHOUT running for President.

    He’s not running for President to improve the Senate. He’s running for President because his monstrous ego demands it.

  9. Wow, they fired Walters instead? Who cares? The same article is being written about every single candidate. Find a scoop (or rearrange the words from someone else’s scoop, like usual)

  10. Christopher Hill are you on Sanders staff ?? Must be for making a statement like that about old Bernie…

  11. Corrupt Bernie. We are paying his salary – for him to run for President. How is this tolerated?

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