This story was updated at 4:42 p.m.
Sen. Bernie Sanders suspended his 2020 presidential bid Wednesday, clearing the path to the Democratic nomination for former Vice President Joe Biden.
The Vermont independent, who appeared to be leading the race just a month and a half ago, ended his second campaign for the White House after a series of recent primary losses to Biden.
“The path toward victory is virtually impossible,” Sanders told his supporters via a livestream from Burlington. “So while we are winning the ideological battle and while we are winning the support of so many young people and working people throughout the country, I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful.”
Sanders said that if he believed there was a path to winning he would stay in the race, but “it’s just not there.”
The announcement came the day after the Wisconsin primary, where, though results will not be finalized for several days, Biden held a solid lead in delegates.
But while Sanders wished Biden well in continuing his campaign, the Vermont senator also said he will remain on the ballot in the rest of the primaries and continue to gather delegates going into the Democratic convention.
“I congratulate Joe Biden, a very decent man, who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward,” Sanders said. “While Vice President Biden will be the nominee, we must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the Democratic Convention where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform.”
After Sanders’ announcement, Biden released a statement praising the Vermont senator for how he has changed the political dialogue in the U.S.
“Issues which had been given little attention — or little hope of ever passing — are now at the center of the political debate,” Biden said.
“I want to commend Bernie for being a powerful voice for a fairer and more just America. It’s voices like Bernie’s that refuse to allow us to just accept what is — that refuse to accept we can’t change what’s wrong in our nation,” he added.
In a contest for the presidential nomination that exposed the rift between the more moderate and more progressive branches of the Democratic Party, Sanders emerged as the dominant leader of the left flank in a crowded field of candidates.
He touted policy positions he brought into the national spotlight in his 2016 White House bid, including Medicare for All, free college tuition and a wealth tax on the richest Americans.
But his campaign faltered in recent weeks as the party’s moderate wing coalesced behind Biden, leading to several key primary defeats, and as the Covid-19 crisis ground campaigning to a halt.
After news broke that Sanders had ended his campaign, President Donald Trump tweeted that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s decision not to endorse Sanders was the reason why he lost key contests to Biden.
Bernie Sanders is OUT! Thank you to Elizabeth Warren. If not for her, Bernie would have won almost every state on Super Tuesday! This ended just like the Democrats & the DNC wanted, same as the Crooked Hillary fiasco. The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party, TRADE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2020
“Bernie Sanders is OUT! Thank you to Elizabeth Warren. If not for her, Bernie would have won almost every state on Super Tuesday!” Trump said.
“This ended just like the Democrats & the DNC wanted, same as the Crooked Hillary fiasco. The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party, TRADE!”
Warren, who dropped out of the race without endorsing anyone after losing her home state of Massachusetts on Super Tuesday, said in a statement that Sanders has worked to “change the course of our country and party.”
“That fight does not end today. We’ll continue it together in the Senate and keep working to hold the wealthy and well-connected accountable to the people,” she said.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who endorsed Sanders on the day he announced his presidential bid, echoed his colleague’s sentiment, saying in a statement that the Vermont independent’s campaign worked to ensure “forward-thinking leadership in America.”
“He is my partner in the Senate, and my friend of decades,” Leahy said. “I look forward to continuing our partnership on behalf of Vermont in the U.S. Senate and in working together to defeat the most dangerous and incompetent president of our lifetime.”
Leahy, who also held the mostly symbolic position of campaign state chair for Vermont, added that he and Sanders will work together to oppose Trump’s bid for a second term.
Vermont’s other member of Congress, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who also served as a state campaign chair, said in a statement that he was a “proud supporter of Bernie’s campaign from day one.”
“This was a tough decision, but the right one. United, we will beat Donald Trump in November,” Welch said. “I have already spoken with him about how we will continue to fight for working families in Congress.”
On Twitter, Vermont’s Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, a Progressive/Democrat who is running for governor, made a statement of gratitude to Sanders, saying the Vermont senator taught him and inspired him throughout the years.
“While Bernie Sanders may not be our next president, we can all continue to live by his leadership and his message ‘not me us,’” Zuckerman, who volunteered on Sanders’ campaigns in the 1990s, said.
@BernieSanders has taught me and inspired me, as he has with millions of Americans across the country. And while Bernie Sanders may not be our next president, we can all continue to live by his leadership and his message “not me us.” pic.twitter.com/ZDWPHtmKNu
— David Zuckerman (@zuckermanforvt) April 8, 2020
Sanders’ decision to end his campaign comes after failing to pick up a single state in the March 17 round of primaries.
Since mid-March he retreated from his presidential campaign, to focus instead on the coronavirus crisis and a slate of federal relief legislation. Ahead of Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary — the results of which will not be coming for several days — Biden held a resounding lead in pledged delegates — 1,217 to 914 — over his Vermont opponent.
Just a week ago, Sanders was still defiant about his decision to remain in the race.
During an April 1 appearance on “The View,” Sanders responded to questions about why he was continuing to run by stating that “people in a democracy have a right to vote and have a right to vote for the agenda that they think can work for America, especially in this very, very difficult moment.”
Meanwhile, Biden, whose path to the nomination has been effectively assured, has turned his attention toward picking a potential Cabinet and vetting possible vice presidential picks. Biden has also spoken to Sanders about his plans, in an attempt to keep the Vermont senator in the loop around his intentions as the days until the Democratic National Convention dwindle.
On Tuesday morning, on the “Today Show,” the former vice president stressed how important Sanders and his supporters are.
“Bernie is one of probably a half dozen people in American history who may not be the nominee but has had an impact on American politics in a significant way, in a positive way,” Biden said.
“If I’m the nominee I can tell you one thing I would very much want Bernie to be part of the journey — not as a vice presidential nominee, but just in engaging in all the things that he’s worked so hard to do, many of which I agree with,” he added.
Sanders entered the race for president on Feb. 19, 2019, with almost universal name recognition after becoming a high profile national politician in the wake of his failed 2016 presidential bid, and a new look campaign staff.
But despite his profile and a highly motivated and passionate base of support, Sanders struggled to expand support, particularly among African American voters in the South.
After the March 10 primaries, Sanders admitted he had failed on two of his major campaign promises: to mobilize a massive wave of young voters and to build up support among older African American voters.
His presidential effort was also almost completely derailed in October 2019, when the 78-year-old senator had a heart attack while campaigning in Nevada. His recovery kept him in Burlington for weeks while he decided whether he would go on or not.
He remained in the race and went to a top two finish in Iowa before winning New Hampshire.
The Sanders campaign’s high point came almost a year to the day after he formally announced his bid for president, when he received a resounding win on Feb. 22 in the Nevada caucuses, riding a wave of support from the Latino community in Las Vegas.
Sanders seemed to be the clear frontrunner in the race, but then, just before the South Carolina primary, he was forced to defend comments about Fidel Castro making great strides in literacy programs in Cuba.
The Vermont senator lost South Carolina badly to Biden. Then, in the course of a few days, several of the remaining moderates in the race — Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigeig, Michael Bloomberg — coalesced behind Biden, remaking the landscape as a head-to-head contest between Biden and Sanders.
While Sanders claimed California on Super Tuesday, Biden won the majority of states and stole the momentum. Since then Biden has not looked back, as he has surged in the polls and Sanders has lost ground, culminating in a failure to capture any of the states in the March 17 round of primaries.
As the Coved-19 crisis intensified, Sanders and his team prioritized focus on the federal response, even as he retreated to Vermont to regroup.
The campaign put a moratorium on large in-person rallies, switching to virtual events, including almost daily discussions about Covid-19.
On March 18, after voting in the U.S. Senate on Covid-19 response legislation, Sanders returned to Burlington with Jane O’Meara Sanders, his wife and adviser, to assess his presidential bid.
Before leaving Washington, D.C., he snapped at a journalist who asked him about whether he would be dropping out of the race for president or not.
“You have to stop with this. I’m dealing with a f–cking global crisis. You know? We’re dealing with and you’re asking me these questions,” he said.
The senator’s political battles in recent weeks have focused on the response ot the virus. Sanders returned to D.C. the next week to vote on the CARES Act — the $2 trillion Covid-19 emergency relief legislation.
Prior to the vote, the bill’s passage was threatened after four Republican senators raised concerns about potentially encouraging unemployment by beefing up the benefits. Sanders swiftly put out a statement threatening that he would begin to demand strong conditions be placed on the $500 billion in relief for big businesses if the GOP members began watering down the unemployment insurance language.
“Now I find that some of my Republican colleagues are very distressed. They’re very upset that somebody who’s making 10-12 bucks an hour, might end up with a paycheck for four months, more than they received last week,” Sanders said on the Senate floor. “Oh my God. The universe is collapsing.”
In addition to expanding social welfare programs, Sanders has also said the coronavirus outbreak has shown how vitally important it is as a country to have universal health care, akin to his Medicare for All proposal.
On Wednesday during the announcement he was ending his campaign, Sanders said Congress must address the current crisis “in an unprecedented way that protects the health and economic wellbeing of the working families of our country.”
“As a member of the Democratic leadership in the United States Senate, and as a senator from Vermont, this is something that I intend to be intensely involved in, and which will require an enormous amount of work,” he said.
“Please stay in this fight with me,” Sanders added. “The struggle continues.”
