On Monday, the progressive political action committee Democracy for America — a group that wanted Elizabeth Warren to run for president even before she did — announced that it is endorsing Bernie Sanders.

“Bernie Sanders has built a powerful multi-racial, multi-generational movement and we’re excited to join the campaign at this critical moment in the Democratic race,” Charles Chamberlain, the group’s chairman, said in a prepared statement. “From Super Tuesday to the Democratic Convention in Milwaukee, we’ll be working every day to make sure Bernie wins the most votes, the most delegates, and the most states.”


The endorsement is a sign not only of Sanders’ strength, but of how far Warren has fallen. DFA, founded by Howard Dean following his run for president in 2004, helped to organize a massive, but ultimately unsuccessful, effort to draft Warren into the presidential race in 2016. When she declined, the million-member group shifted its support to Sanders and played an instrumental role in his campaign.

The endorsement Monday follows abysmal performances by Warren in the first four nominating states, with dim prospects for Super Tuesday, as well.

Warren’s campaign has suggested that it can remain relevant by collecting enough delegates in upcoming contests to hang on until the Democratic Party’s national convention in July. But Sanders has dominated with progressive voters and is poised to stretch his delegate lead on Super Tuesday.

DFA said Sanders received nearly 80 percent of the vote in a membership survey, with more than 38,000 votes cast over an 11-day period.


Sanders said in a prepared statement that he was “proud to have the support of Democracy for America and its grassroots members who know that real change never comes from the top on down but from the bottom on up.”