In 1981, after several failed statewide bids on the Liberty Union Party ticket, Bernie Sanders was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont as an independent. The Democratic Party proceeded to launch a war against Sanders and several other progressives who won city council seats that year. Yet through a combination of popular mobilization, sewer socialism, and the gradual construction of parallel institutions, the crew outlasted the assault.

Today, Sanders is the country’s most successful left politician, and the Vermont Progressive Party (VPP) — which grew out of the original slate of left-wing insurgents and disaffected Rainbow Coalition Democrats — is on the short list of most successful left parties. Attaining major party status in 2000, the VPP still controls the Burlington City Council and has members in both chambers of the statehouse as well.

This election cycle, VPP chair Emma Mulvaney-Stanak says, the party is running more candidates than ever: between twenty-five and thirty. And, Mulvaney-Stanak notes, the VPP finally has a genuine pipeline — it cultivates elected officials at the local level, moves them into legislative seats, and then vies for statewide office.