Sen. Elizabeth Warren will drop out of the Democratic presidential race on Thursday, a person familiar with the campaign told NBC News — leaving former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders as the last major contenders battling for the nomination to challenge President Donald Trump this fall.
Warren will announce her decision to her staff on a late-morning call, according to the person. It was not immediately clear if the progressive Massachusetts senator planned to endorse one of her rivals, a move that could be pivotal as Biden and Sanders jockey for a delegate lead.
Warren’s exit — like that of former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg on Wednesday — came after the Massachusetts senator’s poor showings in the crucial Super Tuesday contests, when 14 states held primaries, and the territory of American Samoa held a caucus.
Her plan to withdraw, first reported by The New York Times, leaves what was once a historically diverse Democratic field essentially narrowed to two white men in their 70s. Sanders is 78 and Biden is 77.
The trajectory of the race has rapidly shifted in recent days, with Biden gaining momentum in the contests that voted on Super Tuesday. Biden won at least 10 states on Tuesday, a dramatic turnaround for a candidacy that very recently looked doomed.
Warren’s dismal showing the same day included a third-place result in her own state of Massachusetts, which Biden won, and where she finished 5 percentage points behind the Vermont independent Sanders.
Update: President Donald Trump has responded to the news of Senator Warren’s departure from the 2020 race for the White House.
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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2020
President Trump: "If Elizabeth Warren would've done what she probably should've done from [Bernie Sanders'] point of view, he would've won. He would've won a lot of states including Massachusetts, probably Texas, definitely Minnesota… She was really a spoiler." pic.twitter.com/wDpml9Fvbo
— The Hill (@thehill) March 5, 2020
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