With the 2016 election coming up, more and more focus is being putting on Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton. However, most voters do not know anything about the other Democratic candidate running, Bernie Sanders. Sanders is a much better choice for the Democratic nomination, and not just for Democrats. If Republicans were to give Bernie a chance, we could get him on the ballot in November instead of Hillary Clinton. These are the reasons Republicans should give Bernie a chance.

1. Bernie wants a fair economy that does not favor billionaires

Currently the United States has the greatest wealth disparity of any major country in the world. The top one percent of Americans have the same amount of income as the bottom 90 percent of Americans. This country has not experienced this kind of wealth inequality since 1928 (and if you know anything about history, you’ll know what happened in 1929). In Sanders’ 2016 candidacy announcement, he addressed this issue by stating, “All over the country, I’ve been talking to people and they say how does it happen? I’m producing more, but I’m working longer hours for lower wages? My kid can’t afford to go to college, how does that happen? While at exactly the same time, 99 percent of all new income generated in this country is going to the top one percent? And my conclusion is that that type of economics is not only immoral, not only wrong, it is unsustainable. It can’t continue. We can’t continue having a nation in which we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major nation on earth at the same time we’re seeing a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires.”

2. Has the experience Obama never had

Bernie has served as an elected official for 34 years (since 1981), which makes him the most experienced 2016 candidate. He has 19 more years of experience than the average candidate and 26 more years than Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush, who have each held elected office for only eight years. Bernie has been a Senator (nine years), a Representative in the House (16 years), and a Mayor for the City of Burlington in Vermont (eight years).

3. Opposes free trade agreements

Sanders has been extremely consistent in his stance on free trade—it is unacceptable and takes jobs away from people in the United States. During his time in office, he opposed both the NAFTA (which opened up free trade with Mexico and Canada) and the CAFTA (which opened free trade with China). He has also stated his opinion on the Transpacific Partnership, a policy being pushed by Obama to open free trade within countries in the Pacific Rim: “I am helping right now to lead the effort against the Transpacific Partnership, because I believe it continues a trend of horrendous trade policies that have cost us millions of decent paying jobs.”

4. And he promises to bring American jobs back to Americans

Because of these free trade agreements, many major corporations have closed down American production in favor of producing in other countries, where they can pay workers unfairly low wages and the costs of production is substantially less. While many candidates choose to avoid a direct response on this issue, Bernie came down hard on these companies in his campaign announcement speech stating: “The wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations have got to join the United States of America. They’ve got to come back to this country, and they’ve got to maintain and respect their responsibilities. And their responsibilities are not to ship jobs to China.”

5. Hates negative campaign ads

Bernie distinguishes himself from almost every other political candidate by refusing to run negative campaign ads that most American are just tired of seeing. In fact, Sanders has never run negative political ads throughout his 30+ years in politics. Senator Sanders says that he hates and detests “these 30-second ugly, negative ads,” and believes that elections should be about “serious debates over serious issues—not political gossip.” It would be refreshing to see a presidential campaign that focused on solving our problems instead of watching our candidates act like middle school students trying to land the best burn on each other.

6. Only candidate taking a stand against big business in politics (without accepting money from the big businesses he is complaining about)

Although Hillary Clinton speaks out against big business, she is also receiving $15 million from the very businesses she is complaining about. And the Republican candidates are no different. Jeb Bush, one of the top contenders for the presidency, has received an outrageous $103 million from Super PACs, and candidate Donald Trump would surely be a proponent of big business considering he runs a big business. Sanders, on the other hand, is receiving no money from Super PACs and is instead raising his money from “small, individual contributions.” He has also stated that “we now have a political situation where billionaires are literally able to buy elections and candidates…. I’m the former chairman of the Senate’s Veterans Affairs Committee, and I can tell you I don’t believe that the men and women defended American democracy for it to create a situation where billionaires own the political process.”

7. Wants to restore the middle class

“But the issue of our economy is not just income and wealth inequality. The issue of what’s going on in our economy deals with the tragic reality that for the last 40 years the great middle class of America, once the envy of the entire world, has been disappearing. Despite exploding technology, so that every worker in American is significantly more productive than those that came before, median family income is almost $5,000 less today than it was in 1999.” – Bernie Sanders at a campgain rally in Wisconsin

Today, we are living in a critical moment of history, and our decisions now will have an enormous impact on the future of America. In 2010, the Supreme Court said there is no limit to the amount a big business can donate to a political campaign, and in this election the 1 percent have decided it is in their interest to attempt to buy the presidential election. It is up to the American people to keep a small group of billionaires from deciding our future, and Bernie Sanders is the Democratic candidate ready to help us. A vote for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary could ensure the right candidate is on the ballot in November.

Here is a link giving information on when the Democratic primary dates by state.

And here is information on whether the primaries in your state are open or closed.