Sanders' Older Brother Also Active in Politics—in the UK

Larry Sanders speaks out
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 11, 2016 11:52 AM CST
Sanders' Older Brother Also Active in Politics—in the UK
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., smiles before he speaks during a primary night watch party at Concord High School, Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Concord, NH.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Bernie Sanders' older brother is making the media rounds in support of his sibling—and it turns out Larry Sanders is active in politics, too, but in the UK. Larry, 81 (who calls his 74-year-old brother by his proper name, Bernard), moved from Brooklyn to Oxford, England, in the late 1960s. He's been active in the Green Party there for quite some time, the Washington Post reports, including acting as the leader of the Green Party group on the Oxfordshire County Council for eight years. But this year, he'll cast a vote in the US elections for the first time since he left the country—a vote for his brother, of course, he tells the Evening Standard. "Selection is the hardest part but the way things have gone in the last couple of weeks leads me to think he can do it," Larry says. "The general election is easier."

"I knew that he would make a huge splash" when he entered the race, Larry says of his brother in an interview with the BBC. (And yes, Larry also pronounces it "yuge.") He says Bernie's message of fighting inequality "resonates" with the public. That's why Bernie can beat the eventual Republican candidate for president, Larry says: "When you have someone as vigorous as Bernard saying, 'Look, that’s you, that’s your parents whose Social Security pension you are talking about,' they will be whipped." And where did Bernie's ideas come from? "I used to babysit him and talk about the political books I was reading, so it’s my fault," Larry tells the Standard. He notes that, should his brother win the presidency, he won't move back to the US, but "I’ll accept an offer to stay at the White House. We could do a barbecue, they have a nice garden." (More Bernie Sanders stories.)

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