Senator Bernie Sanders departs the Capitol following a vote on March 18, 2020. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)

Senator Bernie Sanders’s (I., Vt.) campaign manager and other top advisers are urging him to consider dropping out of the Democratic presidential primary, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

Campaign manager Faiz Shakir and Sanders ally Representative Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) have reportedly come out in favor of exiting the race. Political stragetist Jeff Weaver, a longtime Sanders ally, has also made the case for dropping out, saying an exit now would leave the Vermont senator on friendlier terms with rival Joe Biden and secure more leverage for negotiations over the Democrats’ political platform.


Sanders said he was taking a “hard look” at the campaign’s future in a Friday MSNBC interview. The senator is reportedly waiting to make a decision until after the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, which Sanders won in 2016 but where Biden now has an average 18-point lead according to RealClearPolitics.

While Sanders won the popular vote in the first three Democratic primaries, Biden rode to victory in South Carolina and again in most Super Tuesday states, boosted by moderate and African-American voters. Sanders has so far refused to drop out despite Biden’s 1,217-914 delegate lead, and several states have rescheduled their primaries and mandated voting by mail during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

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