America’s love affair with Bernie Sanders is heating up. In the past few weeks, the Senator has been able to position himself as the anti-establishment candidate against former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. With his tough rhetoric on Wall Street and rising popularity with young voters, Bernie Sander’s campaign just may be the one you need to watch.

 

1.Millinials Love Bernie

Sanders is the millennial candidate. The Vermont senator shows strong poll numbers among young voters with 44% saying that they would vote for him over Clinton. He also seems to have massive appeal to young people at the community level, with hundreds of millennial volunteering and hosting events to get more people involved in the campaign.

 

2. Strong Digital Campaign

Sanders is the social media juggernaut of this campaign cycle with 1.8 million Facebook followers, which is .06 more than Clinton. He has inspired twitter hashtags #feelthebern, #Bernie2016, and #babesforbernie – which is generally just selfies of young women wearing Bernie Sanders apparel.

 

3. Seen as the Anti-Debt Candidate

Many American voters have felt disillusioned with the economy since the recession in 2007. In particular, young voters—who have come of age with ridiculous amounts of student loan debt and few job prospects—are ready for a anti-capitalist candidate who can tackle our mounds of debt.

 

4. Social Rights Advocate

Bernie Sanders has been a civil rights advocate since his youth when he actively worked on the American Civil Rights campaign in the 1960s. Since then Sanders has faithfully supported minority rights issues and has often championed progressive social causes like marriage equality and affirmative action.

 

5. Tough on Wall Street

The long-time senator has always had some tough things to say to Wall Street. Often seen as the candidate who is concerned with the inequality gap, Sanders scores big with quotes like, “something is profoundly wrong when, in our country today, the top one-tenth of 1% own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90% and when the 20 richest people own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans—half of our population.”

 

6. Stronger Gun Control Regulations

These days it is becoming increasingly rare for elected officials to take a strong stance on gun control. Senator Sanders has been a consistent supporter of stricter gun control for his entire career as a public servant. After the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that resulted in the death of 20 children, Sanders voted to expand background checks and to ban assault weapons. These two central pieces were ultimately dropped from the final legislation.

 

7. Not “In the Establishment”

Americans are getting more wary of so-called “political dynasties”, where a candidates close family members have held the Office of the Presidency. Candidates like Hilary, who was married to President Bill Clinton, and Jeb Bush, the brother of former President George Bush, fall directly into this category. For voters who are way of political families, a guy like Sanders fits the bill.

 

8. Perfect Liberal Candidate

American progressives have been waiting a long time for a candidate like Bernie Sanders. Socially minded democrats and anti-wall street voters find common ground in Sanders, the only democratic candidate who is seen as firmly left of center.