No chance, bowing out, says decree by Bernie Sanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders announces the end of his Democratic presidential campaign Wednesday in a livestream broadcast from his home in Burlington, Vt. He pledged to support rival Joe Biden, calling him “a very decent man.”
(The New York Times/via campaign video frame grab)
Sen. Bernie Sanders announces the end of his Democratic presidential campaign Wednesday in a livestream broadcast from his home in Burlington, Vt. He pledged to support rival Joe Biden, calling him “a very decent man.” (The New York Times/via campaign video frame grab)

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, is ending his 2020 campaign, clearing the way for former Vice President Joe Biden to be the party's choice to take on President Donald Trump in November.

"As I see the crisis gripping the nation," Sanders told supporters in a livestream Wednesday from his home in Burlington, Vt., "I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win and which would interfere in the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour."

"The path toward victory is virtually impossible," Sanders said of his nomination prospects. "If I believed we had a feasible path to the nomination I would certainly continue the campaign, but it's just not there."

The decision came after decisive losses to Biden, and the novel coronavirus pandemic that halted all traditional forms of campaigning.

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Sanders, the leading candidate in the race six weeks ago on the strength of early victories, has been unable to regain his footing. In the run-up to Wednesday's announcements, some of his closest aides and allies had urged him to consider bowing out.

The exit by Sanders, a 78-year-old self-described Democratic socialist, marked the close of a roller-coaster primary race that started more than a year ago. What began as the most diverse presidential field in history, featuring more than two dozen candidates, is finishing with the victory of an older white man whose prospects were written off not long ago.

Just after Sanders announced that he was dropping out, Biden released a lengthy statement lauding his rival's accomplishments and saying he would attempt to champion many of the same issues that animated Sanders' campaign.

"He hasn't just run a political campaign; he's created a movement," Biden said, echoing a refrain from Sanders. "And make no mistake about it, I believe it's a movement that is as powerful today as it was yesterday."

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The two men spoke Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the conversation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not cleared to publicly discuss it.

Trump tweeted Wednesday that the party stacked the race against Sanders. The president said the senator's supporters "should come to the Republican Party."

Sanders said in the livestream that he would remain on the ballot in the remaining state contests and attempt to amass more delegates to have influence at the Democrats' convention.

The convention was originally scheduled for July in Milwaukee and, because of the coronavirus, has been rescheduled for August. There remains much doubt that it will occur in traditional fashion, which would require tens of thousands of visitors to descend on the city for a week.

The two-time presidential candidates and the voters who backed him have left their mark, Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Michael John Gray said.

"Sen. Sanders has changed the face of Democratic politics. He has great supporters who strongly believe in him, and I think he has done the job of substantially making the Democrats pay attention to issues that have otherwise not been talked about," Gray said.

Rather than battling until summer, Democrats can now focus on coming together, Gray said.

"It takes time to unite, it takes time to coalesce and the more time you have to do that ... the better off you'll be," he said.

LIBERAL IDEAS

Sanders' decision to end his campaign closes one of the most remarkable chapters in modern political history. His advocacy for liberal ideas, such as Medicare-for-all and tuition-free public college, shifted the national debate over the role of government.

"Together we have transformed American consciousnesses as to what kind of nation we can become," Sanders said on the Wednesday livestream. He reflected on the longer arc of his liberal crusade, arguing that many of the ideas he had long fought for have moved into the mainstream.

"Few would deny that over the course of the past five years, our movement has won the ideological struggle," he said.

His success in the first three primary contests of 2020 made him the best-performing independent contender in U.S. history, as well the strongest Jewish presidential candidate. Sanders also was the oldest candidate to go so far in the process.

Sanders amassed the most votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, which opened primary voting, and cruised to an easy victory in Nevada -- seemingly leaving him well-positioned to sprint to the Democratic nomination while a deeply crowded and divided field of alternatives sunk around him.

But Biden won a crucial endorsement from influential U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and a subsequent, larger-than-expected victory in South Carolina, which propelled him into Super Tuesday, when he won 10 of 14 states.

Sanders' campaign's failure to capture the support of a majority of Democrats, on sharp display once the field narrowed to Sanders and Biden, underlined the limits of his left-leaning politics. A loss in the Michigan primary was especially damaging, undercutting Sanders' message that he could expand the Democratic electorate by winning industrial areas.

Sanders also was unable to win widespread support in the black community, a problem in a party in which black voters play a major role.

Although Sanders campaigned aggressively to activate new voters, particularly young people who had not participated in politics in the past, his efforts fell short, exit polls and turnout figures showed.

Sanders vaulted onto the national scene in 2015 as a little-known candidate against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic presidential nod. While Sanders had spent decades in office, he had remained on the fringes of the political discourse, espousing ideas at the left end of the spectrum that often gained little traction.

FUNDRAISING LEGACY

But in 2016, Sanders caught a populist wave as the Democratic Party was shifting left and capitalized on Clinton's unpopularity. He stunned many analysts by drawing large crowds, and winning 23 primaries and caucuses.

This time, many political operatives again wrote off Sanders, given the Democrats' strong field, especially after he suffered a heart attack in early October that forced him from the campaign trail for two weeks. But Sanders confounded expectations once again, recovering strongly, attracting support from influential young liberals such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and accumulating more delegates than anyone but Biden.

Sanders also created a lasting legacy in terms of the way presidential candidates raise money. Starting with his 2016 campaign, he became an online fundraising behemoth, collecting tens of millions of dollars over the past two years, mostly in small increments from his passionate army of supporters.

For Sanders, the 2020 race was a ride of highs and lows.

He signaled his candidacy with a bang, releasing a video in February 2019 that went viral and raising $6 million in his first 24 hours. That silenced critics who predicted that he would struggle to generate excitement in a crowded field with a different dynamic than he faced four years ago.

Had he won the nomination and general election, Sanders would have been the oldest person ever inaugurated as president -- Biden or Trump will assume that title no matter which takes the oath in January.

Sanders on Wednesday congratulated Biden and called him a "very decent man." He has pledged to support Biden as the nominee, but questions remain about what his loyal supporters will do and how forcefully Sanders will urge them to back the former vice president.

Biden moved to appeal to Sanders supporters Wednesday.

"I hope you will join us," he said in a statement. "You are more than welcome. You're needed."

But Sanders made clear that while he is exiting the campaign, he will still be a force.

"Please stay in this fight with me," he told his backers. "The struggle continues."

At rallies across the country over the past year, many Sanders supporters said in interviews that they would not be inclined to vote for the Democratic nominee if it wasn't Sanders.

Information for this article was contributed by Sean Sullivan, Chelsea Janes and Amy B. Wang of The Washington Post; by Will Weissert of The Associated Press; and by Frank E. Lockwood of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A Section on 04/09/2020

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