In a break from tradition, Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue weighed in on the Democratic presidential contest, warning that a nomination of avowed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders would put America on a "dangerous path."

He urged Democrats to reject the Vermont independent's bid.

The Chamber, the nation's largest businesses trade association and a powerful force in congressional races, historically has stayed out of the presidential contests. It makes no endorsements and usually refrains from commenting on the race except to promise an open door to the eventual winner.

In a statement Wednesday following Sanders' 60-38 percent win over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary, Donohue broke with that tradition to slam the candidate's economic platform as "wholly misguided."

"Socialism is a wrong and dangerous path for America. It's failed everywhere it's ever been tried, bringing shared misery instead of shared prosperity. It undermines personal initiative and responsibility, stunts innovation and growth, makes people serve government — not vice-versa— and robs individuals of the dignity of earning their own success and charting their own course," he said.

"The Chamber urges all Americans to reject this failed, antiquated and discredited economic system. There's no place for it in a country that strives to be free, prosperous and always looking to the future."

Sanders is locked in a tight race with front-runner Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Most observers expect that she still will win, but the strength of Sanders' New Hampshire victory has raised the prospect of a long primary fight during which Clinton may feel obliged to shift further leftward to counter him.

The Vermont senator has run a campaign largely based on a message of hard-left economic populism, blaming all of the nation's woes on the actions of the very richest people. He has called for a $15 minimum wage, higher taxes on the wealthy and the middle class, breaking up large financial institutions, pulling out of international trade deals, eliminating the secret ballot in union elections, and replacing Obamacare with a government-run single payer health care system.

That is pretty much the opposite of the Chamber's agenda. It has leaned generally rightward politically, calling for fewer regulations, lower taxes and more international trade. It opposes conservatives on some major issues such as immigration, in which it favors relatively open-door policies.

In his statement, Donohue quoted the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's opinion of the kind of policies Sanders is proposing: "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

Donohue said she was "still right today."