Warren ends 2020 presidential bid after Super Tuesday rout

Elizabeth Warren, who electrified progressives with her “plan for everything” and strong mess of ecomic populism, dropped out of Democratic presidential race on Thursday, according to a person familiar with her plans. exit came days after onetime front-runner couldn’t win a single Super Tuesday state, t even her own.

Massachusetts senator hasn’t endorsed Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden, remaining candidates in race. But she has talked to both campaigns in recent days and is assessing who would best uphold her nda, according to ar person who requested anymity to discuss private conversations.

people weren’t authorized to speak about Warren’s intentions and talked to Associated Press on condition of anymity.

Warren’s exit extinguished hopes that Democrats would get ar try at putting a woman up against President Donald Trump.

For much of past year, her campaign h all markers of success, robust poll numbers, impressive fundraising and a sprawling political infrastructure that featured staffers on ground across country. She was squeezed out, though, by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who h an immovable base of voters she needed to vance.

Warren never finished higher than third in first four states and was routed on Super Tuesday, failing to win any of 14 states voting and placing an embarrassing third in Massachusetts, behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sanders.

Her exit from race following Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s departure leaves Democratic field with just one female candidate: Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who has collected only one delegate toward mination. It was an unexpected twist for a party that h used votes and energy of women to retake control of House, primarily with female candidates, just two years ago.

Warren’s campaign began with ermous promise that she could carry that momentum into presidential race. Last summer, she drew tens of thousands of supporters to Manhattan’s Washington Square Park, a scene that was repeated in places like Washington state and Minnesota.

She h a compelling mess, calling for “structural change” to American political system to reorder nation’s ecomy in name of fairness. She h a signature populist proposal for a 2% wealth tax she wanted to impose on households worth more than $50 million that prompted chants of “Two cents! Two cents!” at rallies across country.

Warren, 70, began her White House bid polling near back of an impossibly crowded field, used wonky policy prowess to rocket to front-runner status by fall, n saw her support evaporate almost as quickly.

Her candidacy appeared seriously damd almost before it started after she released a DNA test in response to going by Trump to prove she h Native American ancestry. Inste of quieting critics who h questioned her claims, however, test offended many tribal leers who rejected undergoing genetic test as culturally insensitive, and it didn’t stop Trump and or Republicans from gleefully deriding her as “Pocahontas.”

Warren also lost her finance director over her refusal to attend large fundraisers, long considered financial life blood of national campaigns. Still, she distinguished herself by releasing dozens of detailed proposals on all sorts of policies from cancelling college debt to protecting oceans to containing coronavirus. Warren also was able to build an impressive campaign war chest relying on mostly small donations that poured in from across country -- erasing deficit created by refusing to court big, tritional dors.

As her polling began improving through summer. Warren appeared to furr hit her stride as she hammered idea that more moderate Democratic candidates, including Biden, weren’t ambitious eugh to roll back Trump’s policies and were too reliant on political consultants and fickle polling. And she drew strength in #MeToo era, especially after a wave of female candidates helped Democrats take control of U.S. House in 2018.

But Warren couldn’t consolidate support of Democratic Party’s most liberal wing against race’s or top progressive, Sanders. Both supported universal, government-sponsored health care under a “Medicare for All” program, tuition-free public college and aggressive climate change fighting measures as part of “Green New Deal” while forgoing big fundraisers in favor of small donations fueled by internet.

Warren’s poll numbers began to slip after a series of debates when she repeatedly refused to answer direct questions about if she’d have to raise taxes on middle class to pay for Medicare for All. Her top visers were slow to catch on that t providing more details looked to voters like a major oversight for a candidate who proudly h so many or policy plans.

When Warren finally moved to correct problem, her support eroded furr. She moved away from a full endorsement of Medicare for All, anuncing that she’d work with Congress to transition country to program over three years. In meantime, she said, many Americans could “choose” to remain with ir current, private health insurance plans, which most people have through ir employers. Biden and or rivals pounced, calling Warren a flip-flopper, and her standing with progressives sagged.

Sanders, meanwhile, wasted little time capitalizing on contrast by boasting that he would ship a full Medicare for All program for congressional approval during his first week in White House. After long avoiding direct conflict, Warren and Sanders clashed in January after she said Sanders h suggested during a private meeting in 2018 that a woman couldn’t win White House. Sanders denied that, and Warren refused to shake his outstretched hand after a debate in Iowa.

Leaning hard into issue only saw Warren’s support sink furr heing into Iowa’s leoff caucus, however. But even as her momentum was slipping away, Warren still boasted impressive campaign infrastructure in that state and well beyond. Her army of volunteers and staffers looked so formidable that even or presidential candidates were envious.

Just before Iowa, her campaign released a memo detailing its 1,000-plus staffers nationwide and pledging a long-haul strategy that would le to victories in primary and general election. Bracing for a poor finish in New Hampshire, her campaign issued ar memo again urging supporters to stay focus on long game — but also expressly spelling out weaknesses of Sanders, Biden and Pete Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, in ways senator herself rarely did.

Warren got a foil for all of her opposition to powerful billionaires when former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg entered race. During a debate in Las Vegas just before Neva’s caucus, Warren hammered Bloomberg and mayor’s lackluster response touched off events that ended with him leaving race on Wednesday.

For Warren, That led to a sharp rise in fundraising, but didn’t translate to electoral success. She tried to stress her ability to unite fractured Democratic party, but that mess fell flat.

By South Carolina, an outside political group began pouring more than $11 million into TV vertising on Warren’s behalf, forcing her to say that, although she rejected super PACs, she’d accept ir help as long as or candidates did. Her campaign shifted strategy again, saying it was betting on a contested convention.

Still longer Warren stayed in race, more questions she faced about why she was doing so with little hope of winning — and she started to sound like a candidate who was slowly coming to terms with that.

“I’m t somebody who has been looking at myself in mirror since I was 12 years old saying, ‘You should run for president,’” Warren said aboard her campaign bus on eve of New Hampshire primary, previewing a ceasing of campaigning that wasn’t yet official. “I started running for office later than anyone who is in this, so it was never about office — it was about what we could do to repair our ecomy, what we could do to mend a democracy that’s being pulled apart. That’s what I want to see happen, and I just want to see it happen.”

She vowed to fight on saying, “I cant say, for all those little girls, this got hard and I quit. My job is to persist.”

But even that seemed impossible after a Super Tuesday drubbing that included her home state.