Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Wednesday morning he is ending his presidential bid, an exit that comes after an abrupt and stunning turnaround that saw him go from a frontrunner to a distant second place behind former Vice President Joe Biden in less than three weeks following the Democratic primary in South Carolina.

Sanders broke the news in a conference call with his staff, and his campaign subsequently announced his decision in a statement. He addressed and thanked his supporters via live stream shortly before noon.

“Together we have transformed American consciousness as to what kind of nation we can become and have taken this country a major step forward in the never-ending struggle for economic justice, social justice, racial justice and environmental justice,” Sanders said.

The onetime frontrunner’s backslide was fueled by other candidates dropping out and coalescing around Biden and was accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the cancellation of campaign events and the postponement of voting in some states.

His decision to leave the race came one day after Wisconsin held its primary election as planned following decisions from state and U.S. supreme courts. That vote featured stunning pictures of voters risking infection in long lines; many wore masks in accordance with federal guidelines.

While results in the state are not set to be announced until April 13, Wisconsin is something of a final shot for Sanders. He won the state when he first ran for president in 2016, and while he initially led the polls in Wisconsin this time around, Biden vaulted ahead there in recent weeks following his victories in the Super Tuesday primaries on March 3.

The quick shift in the primary was a painful one for Sanders, particularly since the senator and many of his allies believed the coronavirus spotlighted the need for the aggressive expansion of public health programs that was a core part of his platform. Nevertheless, in the final days of his campaign, Sanders’s decision to remain in the race as the possibility of a victory slipped away frustrated even some of his senior staff.

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In his remarks on the decision to suspend his campaign, Sanders described it as a “difficult and painful” choice fueled by the fact that his “path to victory is virtually impossible.” He also discussed his view that the virus highlighted the need for his progressive policy agenda and referenced polls showing the majority of Democratic primary voters — even in states he did not win — back universal health care.

“In terms of health care, even before this horrific pandemic we are now experiencing, more and more Americans understood that we must move to a Medicare for All single-payer program,” Sanders said, later adding, “This current horrific crisis that we are now in has exposed for all to see how absurd our current employer-based health insurance system is.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders departs after addressing a news conference in Burlington, Vt., Wednesday. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Despite ending his second and presumably last presidential campaign, Sanders has unquestionably changed the landscape of American politics. Since his run in 2016, several ideas that he brought to the fore have become part of the core platform of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, including Medicare for All, free public college, a $15-an-hour minimum wage and aggressive spending to combat climate change. In his remarks on Wednesday, Sanders repeatedly emphasized the growing support for elements of his agenda.

“Over the course of the past five years, our movement has won the ideological struggle, in so-called red states, and blue states, purple states. A majority of the American people now understand that we must raise the minimum wage ... that we must guarantee health care as a right to all of our people, that we must transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and that higher education must be available to all regardless of income,” Sanders said, adding, “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 in cities and states across the country.”

Recent elections have swept many Sanders allies into office, including some — notably Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. — who cite him as an inspiration and cut their teeth organizing on his campaign.

It’s a far cry from Sanders’s early days. Born in Brooklyn, he moved to Vermont as a young man and was first elected mayor of the state’s largest city, Burlington, in 1981 by a margin of just 10 votes. He ran and governed as an unabashed democratic socialist.

When he entered the House of Representatives and later the Senate, Sanders remained an independent, though he caucused with the Democrats. From this position, he was often a lone voice advocating for progressive positions.

That changed in 2016 when Sanders mounted a surprisingly strong challenge to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary, which saw him go from a long shot to a close contender. While he ultimately backed Clinton, Sanders kept his campaign going through June of that year, leading to divisions that played out at the Democratic convention the following month and lingering resentment among some within the party. Sanders’s bid also cemented his status as a leading progressive voice and led to reforms in the primary process after his team raised concerns that it was designed to allow the party’s leadership to block insurgent candidates.

During his presidential campaign this year, Sanders began discussing his politics in far more personal terms than he had in the past. He framed his policies as rooted in his experience growing up as the child of working-class Jewish immigrants from Europe. However, even as he opened up more on the campaign trail, Sanders stopped short of discussing one experience that his close friends believe is a fundamental driver behind his focus on health care — losing his mother to illness as a teenager.

Sanders arrives at the Capitol for a vote on a coronavirus bill amendment on March 18. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

As happened in 2016, Sanders faced accusations that his supporters were largely young, white “Bernie Bros” who sparred with supporters of his rivals online. Yet he also had significant support from African-American voters, though not nearly as much as Biden.

While he criticized Biden on their differing policy positions as the race came down to the two men, Sanders refrained from engaging in personal attacks and pledged to back his opponent if it was clear he won the nomination. Sanders also repeatedly disavowed anyone who might engage in personal attacks on his behalf.

However, there is no question that his rise has helped highlight the differences and sharpen the divide between progressives and centrists in the Democratic Party.

Though Sanders came up short, there were some encouraging signs for the senator and his supporters in the 2020 race. He overwhelmingly won the support of Latinos, who could become a transformative part of the progressive base. And exit polls show that, even as Sanders lost to Biden, the majority of Democratic voters do support universal health care. He also was popular with younger voters. Sanders framed this as winning “the struggle ... generationally” as well as “ideologically” in his remarks on Wednesday.

Throughout his campaign, Sanders said he would support whoever won the Democratic nomination in their effort to defeat President Trump. With Sanders’s exit, a key question is what that support might look like. As the de facto leader of the Democrats’ progressive wing, he is in a position to help bridge the divides in the party. How he and Biden come together will be a defining moment for the campaign going forward.

Sanders provided a sense of his future plans in his remarks on Wednesday. Though he suspended his campaign, he noted that he will still be on the ballot and said he hopes to amass delegates to the Democratic convention in order to sway the party’s agenda. He also vowed to work toward electing “strong progressives at every level of government, from Congress to the school board.”

“Today, I congratulate Joe Biden, a very decent man who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward,” Sanders said. “While Vice President Biden will be the nominee, we must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the Democratic convention where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform and other functions. Then, together, standing united, we will go forward to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history.”

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