End of the Race: Sanders Withdraws from Presidential Election

Bernie Sanders has withdrawn from the Democratic presidential race, leaving Joe Biden as Donald Trump’s main opponent in the upcoming election. The reasons for the senator’s decision are still unknown, but the U.S. president has already encouraged Sanders’ supporters to join the Republican Party.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has ended his presidential campaign, paving the way for former Vice President Joe Biden to become the Democratic Party nominee. According to CNN, the senator announced the decision to his team over the phone.

Sanders’ exit from the race removes ambiguity from the presidential campaign, and makes it clear that Biden will be the one who faces President Donald Trump in the November election.

The U.S. president reacted to Sanders’ withdrawal from the race by saying that the Democrats arranged everything the way that top party officials, who support Biden, wanted to. “The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party,” the U.S. president tweeted.

The senator’s decision was rather unexpected, because he had said consistently before that he wanted to continue the fight. However, he did not deny discussing the possibility of withdrawing with his campaign staff.

As The Washington Post reported, most of Sanders’ campaign managers advised him to drop out of the race, most notably his campaign strategist, Faiz Shakir. However, the senator’s representatives did not officially confirm the report.

Meanwhile in contrast in early April, the media reported that Sanders’ campaign was making progress in securing support for combating the new coronavirus in the U.S. and helping those affected by the American government’s restrictive measures.

The U.S. is currently the leading country in the number of individuals who have been infected by the virus. There are more than 400,000 reported cases in the U.S. and more than 13,000 people have died.

Poor Odds

The senator’s performance in the polls left much to be desired. According to the Morning Consult’s data from April 5, Biden was leading nationally with a 61% approval rating, while Sanders was only at 36%.

The overall number of the delegate votes won in the primaries did not play out in the senator’s favor. Sanders won 914 delegates in the 30 primaries that were held, while the former vice president won 1,217 delegates. A minimum of 1,991 delegates are needed to become the Democratic presidential nominee.

To become the frontrunner in the race, Sanders needed to be the clear winner in 60% of the remaining states, but the chances of this were very slim, according to Politico analysts.

Technically, Sanders had the opportunity to increase his support with the onset of the coronavirus and the subsequent postponement of elections to the summer. However, despite the circumstances, the likelihood of success was not great since Biden would obviously be taking advantage of this time as well.

Still, it isn’t worth talking about Sanders’ exit from the race in definitive terms yet, because the American media are confused about how to describe the situation.

For instance, if CNN writes about the exit, then a number of other publications also talk about the senator suspending his campaign. In this case, even Trump’s reaction is not reliable. Yet, the media agree that Sanders must address his supporters soon and explain the situation.

A Blow to Democracy

Even the senator’s campaign suspension dealt a heavy blow to his ratings, which were already quite low. In addition, this move will impact the far-left wing of the Democratic Party since Sanders is its unofficial leader.

Although the senator’s supporters are unlikely to switch parties as Trump suggested, they are still not very willing to vote for Biden. If Sanders does not publicly show support for the former vice president, the events of the previous 2016 presidential election are doomed to repeat themselves.

In 2016, the leaders of the Democratic Party forced the senator to give up the fight in favor of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. As a result, Sanders’ supporters refused to vote in protest. By some estimations, this greatly impacted her results.

At the moment, Sen. Sanders has paved the way for Trump’s reelection by suspending his campaign, which is what the Democrats are actively trying to prevent. In spite of this, Biden is already trying to entice Sanders’ supporters to his side by specifically insisting that the Democratic Party must unite against the common threat, the incumbent president.