Senator Elizabeth Warren has told staffers that she will end her campaign to be the Democratic Party’s nominee against President Donald Trump this fall, according to a campaign sources.
Her decision to exit the race for the Democratic nomination will leave voters in upcoming primaries with a choice between former Vice President Joe Biden, the current front-runner, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who remains in the race despite having won very few delegates in the primaries and caucuses which have taken place so far.
A source familiar with the senator’s thinking said she has no plans to make an endorsement of either of her now-former rivals at this time.
Though Warren briefly enjoyed front-runner status for a few weeks this past fall, support for her candidacy plummeted after questions were raised over how she would pay for the “Medicare for All” universal health care plan which both she and Sanders have championed.
While she will exit the race having won 65 pledged delegates, she has not been able to garner support at the levels voters have shown for Biden and Sanders, both of whom placed ahead of her in the primary contest conducted by her home state of Massachusetts on Tuesday.
After her support collapsed in the wake of her “Medicare for All” plan’s lackluster reception, Warren refocused her campaign on a sharp anti-corruption message, with which she garnered attention during and the two most recent pre-primary debates, for her evisceration of ex-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
But despite earning herself viral moments by attacking the Manhattan billionaire over his treatment of women and the massive amount of money he spent in his ultimately-quixotic bid for the presidency, that media attention did not translate into support from voters.
And because Bloomberg dropped out of the race on Wednesday, Warren can still claim to have outlasted one of the billionaires who she regularly railed against on the campaign trail.