Bernie Sanders has announced that he is ending his presidential campaign.
The Vermont independent senator’s 2020 bid started off strong.
He narrowly missed first place in Iowa before picking up wins in New Hampshire and Nevada.
All the while, his campaign continued to rake in millions in small-dollar donations and pack rallies full of supporters as he ascended to national front-runner status amid a crowded Democratic field.
Sanders made the announcement in a call with his campaign staff, his campaign said. Sanders’ exit caps a stunning reversal of fortune following a strong performance in the first three states that voted in February. The nomination appeared his for the taking until, on the last day of February, Biden surged to a blowout victory in South Carolina that set off a consolidation of moderate voters around the former vice president. The contest ends now as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, which halted in-person campaigning for both Sanders and Biden and has led many states to delay their primary elections.
Running as a progressive insurgent against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Sanders popularised ideas like “Medicare for All.”
In 2020, however, a number of candidates backed similar policies, and he faced another prominent progressive in Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who was the first to propose canceling some student debt in April.
