April 8, 2020 2 min read

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As Americans struggle to coalesce around a single set of guidance to battle the coronavirus pandemic, circumstances surrounding the 2020 presidential election just got a bit less cloudy.

Bernie Sanders, the Independent Senator from Vermont and progressive firebrand, has officially ended his bid to oppose Donald Trump this November. As recently as five weeks ago — when he secured an easy victory in Nevada’s state primary — Sanders’ path to a nomination as the Democratic Party’s consensus candidate felt assured.

But in an address to his followers on social media this morning, Sanders announced, “I wish I could give you better news, but I think you know the truth…The path toward victory is virtually impossible…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.”

Related: The Lesson Managers Can Learn From Bernie Sanders

He went on to emphasize our current, urgent public-health crisis, his skepticism of current presidential leadership to contain it and his own own unwillingness to conduct a campaign that could take away from efforts to combat it. 

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads Sanders by several hundred delegates at this point, is now the presumptive Democratic nominee. As has been reported by numerous outlets, Biden has already begun vetting vice presidential prospects. 

Despite Sanders’s formally stepping back from the race, his once-radical-seeming policy positions — Medicare for All, student-debt cancelation, etc. — have become the subject of more substantive discussion on both sides of the aisle, particularly as COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on economic norms and sent unemployment rates rocketing to all-time highs.