Sen. Bernie Sanders has had more influence on US politics than almost any other failed presidential candidate in the country's history.

Sanders has set the tone for the future of the Democratic party with his push for Medicare for All, tuition-free college, and the Green New Deal, among other proposals.

The senator from Vermont dropped out on Wednesday, making former Vice President Joe Biden the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

"Senator Sanders and his supporters have changed the dialogue in America," Biden said in a statement. "He doesn't get enough credit for being a voice that forces us all to take a hard look in the mirror and ask if we've done enough."

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Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2020 race on Wednesday.

The senator from Vermont has now ran two failed presidential campaigns, but in doing so has drastically shifted the Democratic party's platform and had an unparalleled influence on the national political discourse.

When Sanders hopped in the 2016 race roughly half a decade ago, he was broadly dismissed as a longshot candidate with ideas far too radical to be palatable to the average American. He proved the doubters wrong, giving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a run for her money while winning stunning victories in New Hampshire and Michigan, among other states.

The self-declared democratic socialist has been saying the same things for decades, which is a large part of what made him so attractive to disenchanted young voters who grew up through the War on Terror and Great Recession.

Sanders failed to win the nomination in 2016, but the Democratic party adopted the most progressive platform in its history that year. In the time since, Sanders has continued to have an overwhelming influence on the party's politics, moving it further and further to the left.

Though he has once again failed to win the nomination in 2020, and former Vice President Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, Sanders' message of "health care is a human right" has perhaps never been more relevant than at the moment he stepped aside — amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Highlighting the influence of his policy proposals in a livestream that marked the end of his campaign on Wednesday, Sanders said, "It was not long ago that people considered these ideas radical and fringe. Today they are mainstream ideas, and many of them are already being implemented."

His push for Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and tuition-free college, among other policies aimed at eradicating inequality, has set the tone for the future of the party. This is evident via young leaders such as Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who volunteered on Sanders' campaign in 2016 before going on to win a shocking victory in the 2018 midterms.

Ocasio-Cortez is the new face of the Democratic party, and young progressives like her will continue to push for an agenda first popularized by Sanders (who is technically not a Democrat).

Sanders has also set a new standard in the way campaigns raise money, rejecting high-dollar fundraisers while building a massive grassroots movement via small-dollar donations.

As Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts put it in a tweet on Wednesday, the Vermont senator's "fight for progressive ideas moved the conversation and charted a path for candidates and activists that will change the course of our country and party."

Echoing these sentiments in a lengthy statement on Sanders' decision to drop out, Biden on Wednesday said: "Senator Sanders and his supporters have changed the dialogue in America. Issues which had been given little attention — or had little hope of ever passing — are now at the center of the political debate. Income inequality, universal health care, climate change, free college, relieving students from the crushing debt of student loans. These are just a few of the issues Bernie and his supporters have given life to."

Biden added: "I want to commend Bernie for being a powerful voice for a fairer and more just America...He doesn't get enough credit for being a voice that forces us all to take a hard look in the mirror and ask if we've done enough."

The former vice president said that though Sanders' campaign has been suspended its "impact on this election and on elections to come is far from over."