Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in a conference call with staff, his campaign said in a statement.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who saw his once strong lead in the Democratic primary evaporate as the party’s establishment lined swiftly up behind rival Joe Biden, ended his presidential bid on Wednesday, an acknowledgement that the former vice-president is too far ahead for him to have any reasonable hope of catching up.
Sanders advised his campaign staff of his decision in a morning conference call and then gave a virtual news conference to media and supporters, bowing out in a speech that contained references to Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King and addressed the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As I see the crisis gripping the nation, exacerbated by president Trump, I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win,” he said.
While falling short of the nomination a second time, the progressive Sanders said it was clear his followers had helped win “the ideological struggle” over the future of the Democratic Party.
“Together we have transformed American consciousness as to what kind of nation we can become and have taken this country a major step forward in the never-ending struggle for economic justice,” he said.
Sanders suffered a heart attack in late 2019 but put himself in position to compete for the nomination in what had been a crowded field after strong results in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
Despite saying ‘the future of this country is with our ideas,’ Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has ended his campaign to become the Democratic nominee for U.S. president. 0:48
But he saw his hopes for the nomination slip away in March after a series of wins for Biden, now the presumptive nominee to challenge Donald Trump, who Sanders characterized as “the most dangerous president in modern American history.”
In series of tweets, Biden congratulated Sanders on the race he ran, praising him for a “movement that is as powerful today as it was yesterday.”
Biden, 77, pledged to work hard to win over Sanders supporters who might be reluctant to vote for him.
And to Bernie’s supporters: I know that I need to earn your votes. And I know that