Pooja Rayapaneni, Writer
As of Wednesday, April 4th, 2020, Senator Bernie Sanders made the executive decision to end his 2020 presidential campaign leaving thousands of his supporters devastated. With this decision, Vice President Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee who will be President Trump’s sole competition in the 2020 presidential election. Sanders has now joined a pool of democratic candidates that have suspended their campaigns due to insufficient funds or losses.
“I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful, and so today I am announcing the suspension of my campaign.” In a live stream video, Sanders passionately acknowledged that “the path toward victory is virtually impossible.” after a series of losses last month to Biden in Florida, Arizona, and Illinois. Consequently, Biden has come out as a clear winner in the primary elections with more than 300 delegates ahead of Sanders (Biden: 1,217, Sanders: 914). Additionally, among the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic, Sanders felt that continuing his campaign would interfere with the ongoing fight against the virus as he could not “in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win and would interfere with the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour.” The suspension of Sander’s campaign has prompted questions regarding his electability due to the insufficient show of younger votes and less frequent voters, whom he was competitive among, to the polls.
Bernie’s campaign consisted of a movement towards what he refers to as a “political revolution”. In his campaign suspension video, Sanders acknowledges that his supporters and him have won in terms of expanding the ideological bounds of politics. This is true. His campaign consisted of radical ideas based on the foundation created in his 2016 campaign. These include Medicare for all, raising taxes on the wealthy, raising the federal minimum wage, and his most notorious being college for all. In his speech, Sanders recognizes the profound achievements accomplished throughout his career with the immense support he gained: “We have taken on Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, and the greed of the entire corporate elite. That struggle continues.”
The struggle truly continues as Sanders will continue to keep his name on the ballot in the 15 states that have yet to hold primary contests in hopes to influence the party’s 2020 platform. In an interview with Stephen Colbert, the Vermont senator has praised Biden as a decent man. Therefore, pledging his support for Biden’s candidacy in an effort to create a united front. The move is 8 months prior to the elections, ultimately giving democrats more time to unite. Unlike the 2016 elections when Sanders waited until days before the July convention to endorse Hillary Clinton. Nonetheless, Sanders vowed to his supporters to keep battling until justice is brought to his issues.
In terms of the future of the presidential election, due to the coronavirus, the timeline is quite unclear. The presidential vote is still set to take place on November 3rd, 2020. The power to delay the vote is in the hands of legislation enacted by Congress following a signature by the president. A political analyst, Monika McDermott, suggests that “By November the picture might be completely unrecognizable. We don’t even know if the election is going to happen as scheduled. There’s talk out there about postponing it or changing it to a mail-in only election.” In addition, President Trump has spoken out regarding Sanders’s campaign suspension in an attempt to urge Sander’s supporters to join the Republican Party. Thus, making it crucial that Democrats stand united against the GOP in order to see success. Furthermore, it’s expected that the former president, Barack Obama, and his wife are to formally endorse Biden which will play a significant role in strengthening the campaign for their vice president. As of now, Biden advisors and many believe the contest will come down to an argument regarding competence, experience, compassion, and empathy.
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