Sanders gave $100K to DNC in May: report

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) moved $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee to help reimburse the party for the cost of his nine-state tour with DNC Chairman Tom Perez, Politico reported Wednesday.

The money was transferred to the DNC last month from Sanders’s presidential campaign, which still has about $5.3 million in its bank account leftover from his 2016 bid.

Sanders joined Perez for a cross-country “unity tour” shortly after the DNC chair was elected in February. Sanders, an independent, had previously backed Perez’s competitor, Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.), for the top party job.

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Sanders is a leading figure among the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and has been highly critical of the DNC in the past.

His campaign sued the party last year over its decision to revoke its access to campaign voter data, because the campaign had improperly accessed the Clinton campaign’s proprietary voter database. He dropped that lawsuit in April 2016.

Even after the 2016 election, Sanders has continued to criticize the DNC and blamed the party for Clinton’s electoral loss in November.

The party itself hasn’t always been warm to the Vermont senator, either. Former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz abruptly resigned last July after a trove of leaked emails revealed that she and other party officials had sought to deprive Sanders of the party’s presidential nomination.