Senator Bernie Sanders has ended his US presidential campaign, leaving Joe Biden as the likely Democratic Party nominee to take on Donald Trump in November.
Today I am suspending my campaign. But while the campaign ends, the struggle for justice continues on. https://t.co/MYc7kt2b16
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 8, 2020
Sanders used strong polling and solid fundraising — collected almost entirely from small donations made online — to move forward. And he 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.
Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, had appeared on the brink of collapse after New Hampshire; but it found new life as the rest of the party’s establishment candidates coalesced around him as an alternative to Sanders. A crucial endorsement of Biden by influential South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn, and a subsequent, larger-than-expected victory in South Carolina, propelled the former vice president into Super Tuesday, when he won 10 of 14 states. In a matter of days, his top former establishment rivals had lined up behind him with their endorsements.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore