Who would have thought a small time senator from Vermont would ever run for president?

And he made a staggering difference.

The primary elections this year have been a rough one, and not one that anyone expected. No one expected Donald Trump to get the nominee on the Republican side, and no one thought anyone would run against Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side. Both happened, but the person who ran against Hillary made a staggering difference compared to what we thought possible.

Bernie Sanders wasn't a common or well known name when this election started. He started out holding his signs up with duct tape and being the small fish in a really big pond, but he didn't stay that way for long.

Nobody thought he'd go far because no one heard of him. He'd only picked up the Democratic National Committee because he knows that running as a third party candidate is ridiculously hard in the United States.

He had a few things working against him too. For many years, Bernie has claimed the title of a Democratic Socialist, something that has negative connotations all over the United States.

He also isn't Christian. He's an openly secular Jewish man who's parents immigrated from Poland. This isn't the run of the mill candidate except for the fact that he's a white male. His religion was never brought into politics either, and that's a huge step forward.

But he made one other big difference.

He won primaries. He didn't just win a few. He won twenty-two state primaries and gained 43% of the vote. A man that no one knew when primaries started and held his signs up with duct tape drew some of the biggest crowds of the election and shocked the nation as he made a real run for president.

The younger voters that never turn out for elections made up the same amount of voters as the Baby Boomers did this year. That has never happened in recent history, and it was impressive. He reminded a group of young adults across the nation that you can still start from the ground up and do whatever you want to with your life.

He made offers that sounded too good to be true, but he had plans behind each of them. Bernie raised a passion for politics in a group that feels mostly left out when politics starts up ever few years, and he reminded people that they can do something.

He nearly won and actually won several state primaries because he rallied people together.

However, more importantly, he created a movement. He didn't make his election about him. People still keep up with him, and he still pushes the rest of his followers to continue to get involved.

He brought people from every walk of life together, gave them voices, let them speak at rallies, and is responsible for several friendships and new organizations along the way. Bernie did more than anyone could have imagined, and he didn't win the primaries against Hillary. Bernie created a new path for people to follow.

He created hope.