TIME Snubs Bernie Sanders for Person of the Year After He Crushes Readers’ Poll

Tom Cahill | December 7, 2015

Apparently, TIME doesn’t value the opinions of its readers.

TIME Magazine’s editors have snubbed Bernie Sanders for Donald Trump.

After the shortlist of finalists for the magazine’s Person of the Year designation was released today, Sanders’ image was noticeably absent, given readers’ strong preference for the Vermont U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate. The shortlist includes billionaire Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Russian president Vladimir Putin, German chancellor Angela Merkel, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Caitlyn Jenner, and Black Lives Matter activists.

Sanders’ exclusion from the shortlist comes as a surprise for Sanders’ supporters, who helped him overwhelmingly win first place in TIME’s readers’ poll for Person of the Year by a wide margin, with 10.2 percent of all votes. Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was in a distant second, with 5.2 percent of the vote. Pope Francis, who was TIME’s Person of the Year in 2013, came in third with 3.7 percent.

Sanders won TIME’s readers’ poll for Person of the Year by a wide margin.

Sanders’ rivals on the Democratic ticket and on the Republican side weren’t even included in the top 10. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received 1.4 percent of the votes, and Donald Trump received just 1.8 percent of all votes.

The popularity of Bernie Sanders among the grassroots likely propelled him to the top position for TIME’s readers above the rest of the pack — since Sanders declared his intent to run for president in the Spring, he’s packed houses, auditoriums, gymnasiums, convention centers and arenas full of supporters across the country. A summer barnstorming tour down the West Coast, from Seattle, to Portland, to Los Angeles, drew over 100,000 people in a matter of days.

TIME’s editors will pick the Person of the Year from the shortlist, and announce the winner on Wednesday.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story falsely stated that TIME was owned by Time Warner. We apologize for the error. -CRG)

Tom Cahill is a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest. He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news. You can contact Tom via email at [email protected]