According to a photo captured by a source on the ground and shared exclusively with Fox News Digital, Sanders boarded the luxury Bombardier Challenger private jet at the Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, Calif., on Tuesday afternoon. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, whom the source also spotted boarding the private jet, spoke at their "Fighting Oligarchy" event in Bakersfield just hours before. (Fox News Digital)
The Bombardier Challenger private jet the pair flew on was operated by Ventura Air Services, which touts "one of the widest cabins of any business jet available today" and provides "superior cabin comfort for its passengers." According to their website, the private jet can cost up to $15,000 an hour.
In 2025, according to Sanders' FEC filings, he spent at least $354,000 in campaign funds to pay for private jet services through Ventura Jets. The other private jet companies Sanders spent campaign funds on included N-Jet and Cirrus Aviation Services.
According to N-Jet's website, the company pieds itself on their "personal touch," adding that customers will "arrive in style with your luxury, comfort, and safety always top of mind."
Sanders, who has been a vocal supporter of the Green New Deal, the aggressive climate change policy targeting carbon emissions and fossil fuel production, and has called climate change an "existential threat" to the world, was pressed about his private jet use last year, prompting him to tell Fox News' "Special Report" host Bret Baier that "that's the only way to get around."
"You run a campaign, and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. [It is] the only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. You think I'm gonna be sitting on a waiting line at United…while 30, 000 people are waiting?" Sanders said.
"That's the only way to get around. No apologies for that. That's what campaign travel is about. We've done it in the past. We're gonna do it in future."
SWALWELL IN THE HOT SEAT AFTER SPENDING OVER $200K IN CAMPAIGN CASH ON CHILDCARE: 'SLIPPERY SLOPE'
Rep. Alexandria Oacsio-Cortez (D-NY) waves to the crowd ahead of Zohran Mamdani 's inauguration as the 112th mayor at City Hall on Thursday January 1, 2026 in New York, NY. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
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For example, AOC's campaign paid The Leo Kent Hotel, a boutique high-rise in Tucson, $3,165.76, around the time of a "Fight Oligarchy" rally that was held there, according to an FEC filing from April 25. In 2025, AOC also spent thousands at luxury hotels like the Asher Adams Hotel in Salt Lake City, the Hotel Vermont in Burlington, The Langham-Huntington hotel in Pasadena, Calif., Hotel El Convento in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Lansdowne Resort & Spa in rural Virginia, and more.
Fox News Digital asked representatives for AOC if the congresswoman felt like she needed to explain her more than $53,000 in campaign spending on upscale hotels across the country in 2025, but did not receive a response.
Fox News Digital's Cameron Cawthorne, Andrew Mark Miller and Deirdre Heavey (formerly) contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bernie-sanders-spent-over-550k-2025-campaign-funds-private-jets-filings-show