Elizabeth Warren, with her husband Bruce Mann's hand on her shoulder, speaks outside her home in Cambridge, Massassachusetss, after she dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. Photo / AP
Elizabeth Warren, with her husband Bruce Mann's hand on her shoulder, speaks outside her home in Cambridge, Massassachusetss, after she dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. Photo / AP
The fight for the Democratic presidential nomination is down to two.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has dropped out of the race today following another round of disappointing finishes in primary contests across the country on Super Tuesday.
The Massachusetts senator, who centred her bid on a promise to wipe out corruption in Washington, officially announced her decision during a press conference outside her home in Cambridge on Thursday afternoon local time.
Warren said that, from the start, she had been told there were only two true lanes in the 2020 contest: a liberal one dominated by Bernie Sanders and a moderate one led by Joe Biden.
"I want you to hear it straight from me: today, I'm suspending our campaign for president," she told them, according to the call transcript released by campaign staffers.
Warren added that it was "not the call (she) ever wanted to make".
"But I refuse to let disappointment blind me – or you – to what we've accomplished," she continued.
"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."
Warren's withdrawal comes one day after billionaire candidate Michael Bloomberg made the same decision.
Both endured disappointing results on Super Tuesday, failing to win a single state between them as former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders dominated. The campaign had projected coming in the top two in at least eight of the 14 states that voted Tuesday, but failed to hit that mark in any of them.
Warren copped the particular indignity of finishing third in her home state, Massachusetts, which Biden won without even campaigning there.
In an email to staffers Wednesday, campaign manager Roger Lau acknowledged that Tuesday's results "fell well short of viability goals and projections, and we are disappointed in the results".
Elizabeth Warren, pictured on March 3, during a primary election night rally, at Eastern Market in Detroit. Photo / AP
US President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that Warren should have dropped out earlier, calling her "a spoiler".
"Bernie would have won states that he lost because of Warren," Trump said in the White House during a meeting with airline executives on the spreading coronavirus threat.
"She was really a spoiler. In the case of Elizabeth Warren, if she would have done what she probably should have done, he would have won a lot of states, Massachusetts, probably Texas, and Minnesota."
Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren, who was going nowhere except into Mini Mike’s head, just dropped out of the Democrat Primary...THREE DAYS TOO LATE. She cost Crazy Bernie, at least, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas. Probably cost him the nomination! Came in third in Mass.
The Democratic contest to take on Trump is now seen as a two-horse race between Biden, 77, and Sanders, 78.
Warren's endorsement will now be highly sought after by both candidates.
"I need some space around this," Warren said on Thursday afternoon.
"And want to take a little time to think a little more."
On Wednesday, US time, Sanders told reporters he had spoken to Warren on the phone and was giving her "the space" to make her own decision on her future in the race.
"Elizabeth Warren is a very, very excellent senator. She has run a strong campaign. She will make her own decision in her own time," he said.
Sanders would not say whether he had asked for Warren's endorsement.
Some of his supporters were less charitable.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar reacted to Biden's Super Tuesday surge by expressing frustration at Warren's decision to stay in the race for so long, even after a series of weak results in early states.
Last month's contests saw Warren come third in Iowa, fourth in New Hampshire and Nevada, and fifth in South Carolina.
Omar believed Warren had hurt Sanders' chances against Biden by splitting the progressive vote.
Imagine if the progressives consolidated last night like the moderates consolidated, who would have won?
That’s what we should be analyzing. I feel confident a united progressive movement would have allowed for us to #BuildTogether and win MN and other states we narrowly lost. https://t.co/lAj2mhI3GR
By contrast, moderate candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar had dropped out of the race in the hours before Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden, believing he was the only centrist capable of defeating Sanders.
With both of them out of the way, Biden blew past Sanders to win 10 states.
It must be said, Biden still had to contend with Bloomberg, who had spent more than $200 million on advertising across the Super Tuesday contests.
But the billionaire had already been badly weakened – thanks in large part, it must be said, to Warren.
The most memorable moment of her campaign came at last month's presidential debate in Nevada.
It was the first time Bloomberg had appeared on stage, having entered the primary process late to a lot of hype, and Warren proceeded to destroy his candidacy in about 60 seconds.
"I'd like to talk about who we're running against. A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians," she said.
"And no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump, I'm talking about Mike Bloomberg.
"Understand this, Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.
"This country has worked for the rich for a long time and left everyone else in the dirt. It is time to have a president who will be on the side of working families."
Elizabeth Warren speaks to supporters on March 2 in the Monterey Park section of Los Angeles. Warren is credited with destroying Michael Bloomberg's credibility, and campaign. Photo / AP
When the conversation turned to his alleged record of sexism towards female employees, Warren pounced again.
Bloomberg had just reeled off a list of women he had employed in prominent positions.
Warren's dismantling of Bloomberg over his treatment of women was one of the most precise and devastating political attacks I have witnessed in twenty years of following this stuff
Bloomberg spending 200 million dollars to get his ass handed to him on stage by Liz Warren and boo’ed on national television is maybe the funniest thing ever #DemDebate
So, while Warren may have helped Biden by taking some votes from Sanders on Super Tuesday, her most useful contribution to his rise was killing off Bloomberg's challenge single-handed.
The race for the nomination is now a two-way contest between Biden and Sanders. If either wins the presidency, it is highly likely he will find a job for Warren in the next administration.
