Bernie Sanders Has Dropped Out of the 2020 Presidential Race
Bernie Sanders is ending his bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, he announced on Wednesday. The Vermont senator entered the race in February of 2019, upholding his legacy as an outspoken proponent of “Medicare for all,” the Green New Deal, and various other policies that quickly established him as the most progressive candidate in the 2020 race.
“I want to thank the 2 million Americans who have contributed financially to our campaign and showed the world we can take on a corrupt campaign finance system and run a major presidential campaign without being dependent on the wealthy and the powerful,” said Sanders in a live address on Wednesday. “Together we have transformed American consciousness as to what kind of nation we can become.”
Sanders’s exit leaves the path to the nomination open to Joe Biden, the former vice president who is to the right of Sanders on myriad issues. Sanders initially held strong over Biden in polls, winning in California, Colorado, and Utah, but slowly began to fall behind in crucial states like Michigan, Texas, and Florida over the last month.
Sanders’s policies were frequently overshadowed by what Business Insider called “the myth of the Bernie Bro” and by what some perceived as his loudness and irascibility (a conception that, as Vice pointed out, frequently relied on anti-Semitic stereotypes). But his campaign gave voice to many who had not seen themselves represented in politics before, from young voters to voters of color.
“Sanders supporters come from all walks of life,” Sanders’s campaign cochair Nina Turner told Vogue at the campaign’s 2020 Brooklyn launch. “They are black, they are white, they are brown.... They come from all over this country. People really believe in the policy platform. And that doesn’t have an ethnicity or a gender—it really is about humanity.”
Originally Appeared on Vogue
