Senator Bernie Sanders is seeking re-election

Updated at 7:51 p.m

Vermonters easily re-elected Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Tuesday.

The Associated Press called the Sanders race the moment polls closed in Vermont at 7 p.m

Sanders, 83, was mayor of Burlington in the 1980s and first won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990. He joined the Senate in 2007 and sought a fourth six-year term in the House. Although he is officially an independent, Sanders meets with the Democratic Party.

The incumbent defeated Republican Senate candidate Gerald Malloy, a U.S. Army veteran and government official who criticized Sanders for what he described as a record of inaction in Congress. Malloy previously ran for Senate in 2022, a race he lost to U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt.

Other candidates in the Senate race included independent Steve Berry, Epic Party candidate Mark Stewart Greenstein, Libertarian Party candidate Matt Hill and Peace and Justice Party candidate Justin Schoville.

Although Sanders was widely expected to win re-election, the results of Senate races across the country could threaten his ability to function effectively in Washington DC during his next term.

Sanders, whose influence in the Senate has only increased since his two presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020, took over as head of the Senate Budget Committee after the last election. In that position, he worked with President Joe Biden to craft the American Rescue Plan Act, which was intended to strengthen the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic but which was also accused by Republicans of contributing to inflation.

In 2023, Sanders became chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a position he used to defeat his lifelong goal of reforming the country's health care system.

Before Tuesday's election, Democrats' path to retaining the majority in the Senate appeared tenuous. Without the majority, Sanders would lose his chairmanship of the HELP Committee.

After voting Tuesday morning in Burlington, Sanders said he didn't want to speculate about how his Democratic colleagues would fare that day.

“I think it's absolutely true that the Democrats … have some seats that we have to defend and we'll see what happens, but I was very proud of the record that I had as chairman of the health, education and I have set up a working committee. said Sanders outside the Robert Miller Community and Recreation Center in the city's New North End.

The senator has developed a close relationship with Biden over the past four years, hosting events and writing editorials with the president. While Sanders has expressed some skepticism about Vice President Kamala Harris's policies — particularly regarding whether they can match Biden's progressive record — the senator has traveled across the country campaigning on her behalf and urging Americans to accept a presidency reject Donald Trump.

“Today is, in my opinion, the most consequential election in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said Tuesday morning in Burlington. “If you believe women have the constitutional right to control their own bodies, the choice is clear. If you believe climate change is real and not a hoax, the choice is obvious.”

Klara Bauters contributed to the reporting.

This story will be updated.