Bernie Sanders To End His Presidential Campaign
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the liberal insurgent who rose from relative obscurity to build a movement and become a two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, is ending his 2020 campaign, according to The Washington Post. This clears the way for former vice president Joe Biden to be the party’s choice to take on President Trump in November.
The exit by Sanders, a 78-year-old democratic socialist from Vermont, marked the apparent 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.
Sanders’s departure presents Democrats with an immediate challenge: Can the party unify as it failed to do in 2016 when a feud between supporters of Sanders and Hillary Clinton damaged its efforts to win the presidency?
Sanders’s decision closes one of the most remarkable chapters in modern political history. His advocacy for sweeping liberal ideas, such as Medicare-for-all and tuition-free public college, shifted the national debate over the role of government.
His unexpected success in the first three primary contests made him the best-performing socialist contender in U.S. history, as well as the strongest Jewish presidential candidate. At 78, Sanders was also the oldest candidate to go so far in the process.
But his 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’s message that he could expand the Democratic electorate by winning industrial areas.
Sanders also was unable to win widespread support in the African American community, a fatal problem in a party where black voters play a critical role.
The backdrop against which Sanders is calling it quits amounts to one more twist in a topsy-turvy year, as the coronavirus pandemic had forced a suspension of in-person campaigning and rallies. It’s one more element of shock and uncertainty in a brief stretch of political history that has the most unorthodox presidency in memory, punctuated by impeachment and Russian interference in U.S. elections.
Sanders vaulted onto the national scene in 2015 as a little-known candidate against Clinton, the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic presidential nod. While the senator from Vermont 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.
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 huge 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 like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and accumulating more delegates than anyone but Biden.
Sanders also left 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.
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 he would struggle to generate excitement in a crowded field with a different dynamic than he faced four years ago.
Just a week later, his campaign was in upheaval as the consultants who guided his 2016 campaign abruptly parted ways with Sanders after several strategic disagreements.
That was even before the campaign’s official kickoff, which came on a chilly March day in Brooklyn, where Sanders grew up. He unveiled a platform that closely resembled his 2016 agenda, focusing on universal health care, steep tax increases on the wealthy and forgiveness of student debt.
The 2016 campaign left lasting scars on Democrats, as many of Sanders’s followers believed that party leaders had unfairly worked to ensure Clinton’s nomination. That campaign also highlighted dramatic divisions over the party’s direction that persisted into the 2020 race.
Sanders was unable to fully capitalize on those divisions as he did four years ago. In the interim, Democrats had moved in his direction on various policies, and his once-singular calls for sweeping liberal ideas like Medicare-for-all and free college were diluted by similar proposals from other candidates.
Ultimately, Democrats chose Biden’s less-aggressive positions and rhetoric, believing they presented the best chance to defeat a president they revile.
Sanders 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. 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.
Democratic leaders hope this time will be different. In 2016, few believed that Trump could win, reducing pressure on Democrats to unify. And Sanders’s decision to end his campaign contrasts with his 2016 strategy of pressing on through the Democratic convention.
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.
Throughout his candidacy, Sanders’s message, while remaining revolutionary in scope, also varied. One week he was underscoring his electability. The next he focused on health care. Other times, he seemed content to reopen old battles with Democrats. He would sometimes talk about his biography, only to leave it out of his speeches for weeks. His confidants said it was hard to persuade him to listen to their advice.
Had he won the nomination, Sanders would have been the oldest person ever inaugurated as president — though Biden or Trump will assume that title if either takes the oath in January.
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