Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday, announced that he was dropping out of the Democratic presidential race. This concludes a quest for the White House that began five years ago in relative obscurity but ultimately elevated him as a champion of the working class, a standard-bearer of American liberalism and the leader of a self-styled political revolution.
He made this disclosure in a live stream on Wednesday morning, Mr. Sanders, eloquent but without his characteristic spark, was by turns gracious and resolute as he announced his decision.
“I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful, and so today I am announcing the suspension of my campaign,” Sanders told supporters but I think you know the truth.”
“We are now some 300 delegates behind Vice President Biden and the path to victory is virtually impossible,” he said.
The Vermont senator called Biden “a very decent man who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward.”
Senator Sanders’s exit from the race establishes former Vice President Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee to challenge President Trump, and leaves the progressive movement without a prominent voice in the 2020 presidential race.
The Man Bernie
In 2006, Bernie Sanders was elected to the U.S. Senate after 16 years as Vermont’s sole congressman in the House of Representatives. Bernie is now serving his third term in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2018 with 67 percent of the vote. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he attended James Madison High School, Brooklyn College, and the University of Chicago. After graduating, he moved to Vermont where he worked as a carpenter and documentary filmmaker. In 1981, he was elected as mayor of Burlington, the state’s largest city, by a mere 10 votes.
As mayor, Sander’s leadership helped transform Burlington into one of the most exciting and livable small cities in America. Under his administration, the city made major strides in affordable housing, progressive taxation, environmental protection, child care, women’s rights, youth programs and the arts.
In Congress, Bernie has fought tirelessly for working families, focusing on the shrinking middle class and growing gap between the rich and everyone else. Bernie has been called a “practical and successful legislator” and he was dubbed the “amendment king” in the House of Representatives for passing more amendments than any other member of Congress. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Bernie worked across the aisle to “bridge Washington’s toxic partisan divide and cut one of the most significant deals in years.” In 2015, Democratic leadership tapped Bernie to serve as the caucus’ ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee.
Bernie lives in Burlington, Vermont with his wife Jane. He has four children and seven grandchildren.
