Sen. Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the 2020 presidential race on Thursday, opening up an opportunity for Sen. Bernie Sanders to pick up additional support after his lackluster Super Tuesday performance.
Warren ended her campaign after she failed to reach second or first place in any of the states that held primaries on Tuesday, including her home state, Massachusetts.
Warren declined to endorse Sanders or former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, and said she wanted to “take a little time to think a little more” before making a decision.
Sanders praised Warren and her 2020 bid after her announcement Thursday.
“She has run a very strong issue-oriented campaign and the reason that her campaign ideas will remain viable for many many years is she has changed political consciousness in America, which, at the end of the day, is the most important thing any candidate could do,” he told reporters at Burlington International Airport, as he headed back to the campaign trail after being in Burlington since Monday.
In January, Warren snubbed Sanders after a debate in which he denied that he previously told her, as she said he did, that a woman could not win a presidential election in the United States.
In a press conference at her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home announcing the suspension of her campaign, Warren brought up gender.
“Gender in this race, you know that is the trap question for every woman,” she said. “If you say, ‘Yeah, there was sexism in this race,’ everyone says, ‘Whiner!’ And if you say, ‘No, there was no sexism,’ about a bazillion women think, ‘What planet do you live on?’
Whether Warren’s exit will provide a major boost for Sanders is unclear, according to Eric Davis, an emeritus professor of political science at Middlebury College.
He said that while Warren and Sanders supporters tend to agree on the issues, their demographics are very different. Warren voters tend to be older, white and highly educated while Sanders supporters include younger people, people with less income and Latinos.
“I don’t know whether the people who would have voted for Warren had she stayed in the race are going to vote for Bernie in subsequent primaries,” Davis said.
“I think Biden could get some of them, I think Bernie could get some of them.”
According to an analysis from Morning Consult, both Sanders and Biden could benefit relatively equally from Warren’s 2020 departure.
While 43% of Warren supporters say Sanders is their second choice, 37% say they would back Biden, the pollster says.
Some Sanders supporters have criticized Warren for staying in the race as long as she did, despite her poor performance in early primaries.
On Tuesday night, after Biden had been declared the victor in the Massachusetts, Jared Hicks, a 29-year-old who has organized for the Sanders campaign in New Hampshire and Boston, said that the Vermont senator lost the state in part because Warren stayed in the race.
“I think she cost us the Massachusetts election,” he said.
