Sen. Bernie Sanders: 'It would probably not be a good idea for people to underestimate me'

Sen. Bernie Sanders.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will officially announce on Thursday that he is running for president, and is well aware that it won't be easy to secure the Democratic nomination.

"I am running in this election to win," he told USA Today. "We've got a long path forward. Most people in America have never heard of Bernie Sanders. More than 90 percent of Americans have heard of Hillary Clinton.... I will absolutely be outspent. But, I do believe we have a chance to raise significant amounts of money through small, individual contributions." Sanders said he decided to run after spending the past year traveling around the nation "trying to ascertain whether there really is grassroots support in terms of people standing up and being prepared to take on the billionaire class. I believe that there is."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.