Summary Once a front-runner, Elizabeth Warren is ending her presidential campaign.
Senator Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the presidential race following another round of disappointing showings in primary contests across the country on Super Tuesday.
Once a top contender for the Democratic nomination, Warren informed her staff that she is ending her presidential campaign during an emotional phone call Thursday morning.
‘I want all of you to hear it first, and I want you to hear it straight from me: today, I’m suspending our campaign for president. I know how hard all of you have worked. I know how you disrupted your lives to be part of this. I know you have families and loved ones you could have spent more time with. You missed them and they missed you. And I know you have sacrificed to be here.’ the Senator said, according to a transcript released by her campaign.’
The Massachusetts Senator and former law professor entered the 2020 race with expansive plans to “bring big structural change,” to tackle political corruption and an avalanche of progressive policy proposals such as “Medicare for All,” retiring student debt and breaking up tech behemoths such as Facebook.
By the fall, the 70-year-old second-term senator was leading in several early state polls and seemed to have gained a foothold with liberal voters around the country.
“I know that when we set out, this was not the call you ever wanted to hear,” she said. “It is not the call I ever wanted to make. But I refuse to let disappointment blind me, or you, to what we’ve accomplished. We didn’t reach our goal, but what we have done together, what you have done, has made a lasting difference. It’s not the scale of the difference we wanted to make, but it matters — and the changes will have ripples for years to come.”
“We ran from the heart,” she said. “We ran on our values. We ran on treating everyone with respect and dignity.”
Despite her high ideals, the progressive Democrat faced a disastrous Super Tuesday showing, when she lost in her home state, finishing a distant third in Massachusetts. Warren didn’t finish above third in any state, building her streak to 19 contests that she lost.
“I refuse to let disappointment blind me — or you — to what we’ve accomplished. We didn’t reach our goal, but what we have done together – what you have done – has made a lasting difference. It’s not the scale of the difference we wanted to make, but it matters – and the changes will have ripples for years to come,” she said.
Warren said she had built “a grassroots movement” that was not beholden to wealthy donors.
Warren’s exit from the presidential race means the Democratic field that began as the most diverse in American history — and included six women and the first openly gay presidential candidate, is now essentially down to two white men: former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders.
Warren said that from the start, she had been told there were only two true lanes in the 2020 contest: a moderate one led by Mr. Biden, 77 and a liberal one dominated by Mr. Sanders, 78.
“I thought that wasn’t right,” Ms. Warren said in front of her house in Cambridge as she suspended her campaign, “But evidently I was wrong.”
It’s not immediately clear if the progressive Massachusetts senator plans to endorse either of the remaining top candidates, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.
Her potential endorsement is highly sought, and both candidates have spoken with her in the days since Super Tuesday, campaign officials said.
“I need some space around this,” she said.
Asked outside her home what she thought it would be like for women and girls now left deciding between Sanders and Biden, Warren said
“One of the hardest parts of this is all pinky promises, and all those little girls who are gonna have to wait four more years. That’s going to be hard.”
‘When I voted yesterday at the elementary school down the street, a mom came up to me. And she said she has two small children, and they have a nightly ritual. After the kids have brushed teeth and read books and gotten that last sip of water and done all the other bedtime routines, they do one last thing before the two little ones go to sleep. Mama leans over them and whispers, “Dream big.” And the children together reply, “Fight hard.” Waren emotionally concluded.
‘Our work continues, the fight goes on and big dreams never die.’ she added