The Vermont senator described Donald Trump as “the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country”.
He said: “Today I am asking all Americans – I’m asking every Democrat, I’m asking every independent, I’m asking a lot of Republicans – to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy which I endorse.
“It’s imperative that all of us work together.”
Joe Biden, 77, said he was “deeply grateful” for the endorsement and said he needed Bernie Sanders not just for the campaign, but to govern.
He said: “You’ve put the interests of this nation and the need to beat Donald Trump above all else. As you say – ‘Not me, us’.”
Addressing Bernie Sanders’ supporters, Joe Biden added: “I see you, I hear you, I understand the urgency of what it is that we have to get done in this country, and I hope you’ll join us.”
The former vice-president said he and Bernie Sanders were setting up policy working groups to address issues including climate change, health care and college fees.
It emerged shortly afterwards that Joe Biden had beaten Bernie Sanders in last week’s Wisconsin’s Democratic presidential primary – held amid controversy because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Bernie Sanders, a self-described “Democratic socialist”, ended his presidential campaign last week, telling supporters he could see no feasible path to get enough votes to win the nomination.
The senator became an early front-runner, popular with younger voters, and made healthcare and income inequalities key election issues.
However, he slipped behind Joe Biden in recent weeks.
Bernie Sanders, an Independent, had sought the Democratic presidential nomination before, losing out in 2016 to Hillary Clinton.
Bernie Sanders has decided to suspend his presidential campaign, clearing the way for former Vice-President Joe Biden to become the Democratic Party’s nominee.
The 78-year-old Vermont senator told supporters on April 8 he saw no feasible path to get enough votes to win the nomination.
An early front-runner, Bernie Sanders found success with young voters, but slipped behind Joe Biden in recent weeks.
Bernie Sanders helped make healthcare and income inequalities key election issues.
Among the most left-leaning candidates during this year’s election cycle, Bernie Sanders, a self-described “Democratic socialist”, campaigned on policies including healthcare for all, free public college, raising taxes on the wealthy and increasing minimum wage.
Bernie Sanders, an Independent, had sought the Democratic presidential nomination before, losing out in 2016 to Hillary Clinton.
In both elections, he found favor with young voters who embraced his calls for a political “revolution”.
Photo Getty Images
Bernie Sanders won endorsements from a number of celebrities, including Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Mark Ruffalo and Dick Van Dyke.
He cemented his front-runner status at the start of the 2020 Democratic primary election season with wins in New Hampshire and Nevada, but his momentum lagged in later days.
Bernie Sanders failed to win key African-American voters across the southern states, who largely went for Joe Biden.
In recent weeks, Bernie Sanders had been hosting campaign events through online live streams due to health concerns from the Covid-19 outbreak.
Joe Biden, 77, is now expected to be crowned the Democratic presidential nominee at the party’s convention in August. He will then face off against President Donald Trump during the November general election.
Bernie Sanders told supporters in a live stream that the decision to end his campaign was “very difficult and painful”, and acknowledged some of his supporters would have wished him to fight until the last state contest.
He said: “If I believed we had a feasible path to the nomination, I would certainly continue.”
Bernie Sanders added that the campaign has “transformed American consciousness as to what kind of nation we can become and have taken this country a major step forward in the never-ending struggle for economic justice, social justice, racial justice and environmental justice”.
He noted that across the country, his campaign received “a significant majority of the votes…from people not only 30 years or younger, but 50 years or younger”.
“The future of this country is with our ideas.”
Bernie Sanders also congratulated Joe Biden, and said that he will work with him to “move our progressive ideas forward”.
He added that he will still be on ballots in states that have yet to vote in the Democratic primary elections, in order to gather delegates and influence the party’s general election platform at the convention.
“Together, standing united, we will go forward to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history.”
Joe Biden has strengthened his position as
front-runner in the Democratic race to take on President Donald Trump in
November’s White House election.
On March 10, he won Michigan, the biggest prize of primary voting, extending
his lead over main rival Senator Bernie Sanders.
Five other states – Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North
Dakota – voted on March 10.
The former vice-president also swept aside Bernie Sanders in Missouri,
Mississippi and Idaho.
The Vermont senator won North Dakota, with results from Washington state
still outstanding on March 11.
It is unclear if Bernie Sanders would fight on until the party convention in
July.
The Democrats’ next big election milestone is in a week’s time when 577
delegates are up for grabs.
To secure the nomination, a candidate needs the support of 1,991 delegates.
Before March 10 vote, Joe Biden had 648 to Bernie Sanders’ 563.
Joe Biden had lagged behind his Democratic rivals in early voting states,
but rebounded after big wins on Super Tuesday and endorsements from several
former nomination rivals.
His campaign looked all but lost at
the start of the primary season in February. The 77-year-old finished a poor
fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary.
However, the turn came with South Carolina – where he won due to the support of the large African-American community – and on the Super Tuesday he won 10 out of 14 states at stake, establishing a sizeable lead over Bernie Sanders.
Thanking supporters from
Philadelphia on March 10, Joe Biden said Democrats, including supporters of
Bernie Sanders, could beat Donald Trump.
Bernie Sanders, 78, enjoys
widespread support among young voters, but has so far failed to turn that into
electoral success.
The Democratic Party has been involved in a lengthy internal debate aimed at
deciding which candidate has the best chance of denying President Trump a
second term in office this autumn.
Once a crowded field of more than two dozen, celebrated for its women and
candidates of color, the Democratic contest is now a race between two white
male septuagenarians.
Joe Biden, a moderate, and Bernie Sanders, a staunch left-winger, offer starkly different visions for America’s future.
In a remarkable rebound for his campaign, Joe
Biden has won nine of the 14 states that voted to pick a Democratic White House
candidate on Super Tuesday.
The former vice-president to Barack Obama overturned predictions to narrowly
take the key state of Texas from his main challenger, Bernie Sanders.
However, Bernie Sanders is projected to win California – the biggest prize
of the night – as well as three other states.
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders lead the race to face Republican President
Donald Trump in November.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $500 million of his
own money on his campaign, but did not win a single state.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, once the frontrunner in the race, suffered a
humiliating defeat to Joe Biden in her home state of Massachusetts.
Super Tuesday awards more than 1,300 of the 1,991 delegates needed to clinch
the Democratic White House nomination in July.
As things stand, Joe Biden has 402 delegates and Bernie Sanders 314.
However, results from California, which has 415 delegates, could affect the
current standing.
Only last month, Joe Biden’s campaign was all but written off by some
observers after he finished a poor fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the
New Hampshire primary.
Joe Biden won Texas – the second biggest state with 228 delegates – along
with Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, North
Carolina and Virginia.
Maine, which has 24 delegates, is also yet to declare but partial results put
Joe Biden slightly ahead of Bernie Sanders.
Virginia and North Carolina are crucial because they are key swing states in
the 2020 election.
Exit polls across the board suggested Joe Biden attracted large majorities
of African-American voters, a crucial bloc for the Democratic Party.
Joe Biden, 77, also appears to have won among the type of suburban voters
who pollsters say have been turning away from the current president.
If Bernie Sanders, 78, does win California, as the Associated Press news
agency projects, he will pick up the lion’s share of the whopping 415 delegates
that the Golden State sends to the party convention.
The left-wing senator also won his home state of Vermont, along with
Colorado and Utah.
Bernie Sanders had been heavily favored to win Texas, but it was finally
claimed by Joe Biden.
In a victory speech, Bernie Sanders lambasted President Trump, but also took
a shot at Joe Biden.
He said: “We’re taking on the political
establishment.
“You cannot beat Trump with the
same-old, same-old kind of politics.”
The next primaries take place on March 0 in Michigan, Washington state, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri and North Dakota, with 352 delegates available.
The presidential nominees will be chosen through a series of primaries and
caucuses in every state and territory that began in Iowa on February 3 and ends
in Puerto Rico in early June.
Short of a big shock, the Republican nominee will be Donald Trump. Even
though technically he has two challengers, he is so popular among Republicans,
he has a clear run ahead of him. With that in mind, the Democratic primaries
are the only ones worth watching.
Step
one: The start line
A whole year before the primaries,
the first candidates emerged from hibernation. Over the year, others woke up
and eventually 28 people announced they were running to become the Democratic
nominee for president.
But dwindling funds, luke-warm or
(ice-cold) public reaction and campaign infighting have, to varying degrees,
led to 16 candidates pulling out of the race.
At the start of primary season, 11
people remained in the running. In theory, any one of them could become the
nominee. In reality, only a few have a chance.
Step
two: The Iowa caucuses
The first event of the primary
season isn’t a primary at all – it’s a series of caucuses, in Iowa. These took
place on February 3, in somewhat chaotic fashion.
What are caucuses?
A caucus involves people attending a
meeting – maybe for a few hours – before they vote on their preferred
candidate, perhaps via a head count or a show of hands. Those meetings might be
in just a few select locations – you can’t just turn up at a polling station.
Caucuses used to be far more popular
back in the day, but this year, Democrats are holding only four in US states –
in Nevada, North Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa.
If any candidate gets under 15% of
the vote in any caucus, their supporters then get to pick a second choice from
among the candidates who did get more than 15%, or they can just choose
to sit out the second vote.
Why Iowa caucuses matter?
A win there for any candidate can
help give them momentum and propel them to victory in the primaries.
Why is Iowa first in the primary
calendar? You can blame Jimmy Carter, sort of. Iowa became first in 1972, for
various technical electoral reasons too boring to go into here. But when Carter
ran for president in 1976, his team realized they could grab the momentum by
campaigning early in Iowa. He won there, then surprisingly won the presidency,
and Iowa’s fate was sealed.
Why Iowa caucuses don’t matter?
Iowa doesn’t represent the entire US
– it’s largely white, so the way people vote there is very, very different than
in other states.
The sate’s record on picking the
eventual nominees is a bit rubbish too, at least when it comes to Republicans –
when there’s an open Republican race, Iowa hasn’t opted for the eventual
nominee since 2000. Such names as Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz
have won there in recent years.
Step three: The New Hampshire primary
Eight days after Iowa on February 11, is the first primary, in New
Hampshire. The tiny north-eastern state of only 1.3 million people will once
again become an unlikely hotbed of political activity.
What is a primary?
Unlike a caucus, where voters are expected to turn up at a few limited
locations at certain times and stick around for a while, primary voters can
just turn up at a polling booth and vote in secret. Then leave.
How does a primary work?
The more votes a candidate gets in a caucus or primary, the more
“delegates” they are awarded, and all candidates will be hoping to
win an unbeatable majority of delegates.
The number of delegates differs in each state, and is decided by a
convoluted series of criteria. In California’s primary, for example, there are
415 Democratic delegates up for grabs this year. In New Hampshire, there are
only 24.
This year is a bit different. Any candidate would need to get at least 15%
of the vote in any primary or caucus to be awarded delegates. There are still
11 candidates in the running – an unusually large number – so there’s a risk
the vote share will be spread out and some of the candidates may struggle to
reach 15%.
After New Hampshire, we could get a clear picture of who is struggling, but
whoever has claimed the most delegates at this stage is still far from
guaranteed to be the nominee.
Even those who are struggling may not drop out right after New Hampshire,
because there is so much at stake on…
Step four: Super Tuesday
A few other states vote in between New Hampshire and the end of February,
but this is when things really start to warm up: Super Tuesday, on March 3.
What is Super Tuesday?
It is the big date in the primary calendar, when 16 states,
territories or groups vote for their preferred candidate in primaries or
caucuses. A third of all the delegates available in the entire primary season
are up for grabs on Super Tuesday. By the end of the day it could be much
clearer who the Democratic candidate will be.
The two states with the most delegates are voting on Super Tuesday
– California (with 415 Democratic delegates) and Texas (228). California is
voting three months earlier than in 2016, making Super Tuesday even more super
than normal.
California and Texas are two states with very diverse populations, so we may
see them going for very different candidates than those chosen in Iowa and New
Hampshire.
Step five: The rest of the race
After hectic Super Tuesday, everyone gets to cool down for a week, before
another busy day on March 10, when six states vote, with 352 delegates
available.
After that, the primary season still has three months left to run, and at
the end, the role of those delegates will become clear…
Step six: The conventions
Donald Trump will almost certainly be sworn in as the Republican nominee at
the party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, between August 24 and 27.
The Democrats will confirm their candidate at their own convention between July
13 and 16 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
What happens in a convention?
Here’s where those delegates come in.
Let’s say that during primary season, candidate A wins 10 delegates. During
the convention, those 10 delegates would vote for candidate A to become the
Democratic nominee. (Any party member can apply to be a delegate – they tend to
be party activists or local political leaders.)
All through the Democratic primaries, there are 3,979 delegates
available. If any one candidate wins more than 50% of those delegates during
primary season (that’s 1,990 delegates), then they become the
nominee in a vote at the convention.
But if we get to the Democratic convention and no-one has more than 50% of
the delegates, it becomes what’s known as a “contested” or
“brokered” convention. This could well happen this year. There are so
many candidates that no one frontrunner emerges in the primaries, and they
split the delegates between them. In that circumstance, a second vote
would follow.
In that second vote, all the 3,979 delegates would vote again, except this
time they would be joined by an estimated 771 “superdelegates”.
These are senior party officials past and present (former president Bill
Clinton is one, as is current Vermont senator and presidential contender Bernie
Sanders), and they’re free to vote for whomever they wish.
If a candidate wins 50% or more in that vote – 2,376 delegates – then they
become the nominee.
This is all thanks to a rule change in 2020: last time around, the
superdelegates voted at the start of the convention, with the delegates. But
many had pledged their support to Hillary Clinton even before the convention,
leading her rival Bernie Sanders to suggest the deck was stacked against him.
Bernie Sanders is the one who campaigned for the change – and it may benefit
him in 2020.
Step seven: The presidency
After inching past Iowa, negotiated New Hampshire, survived Super Tuesday and come through the convention, there is only one step left for the nominee: the presidential election, on November 3.
Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are taking
the lead in the Iowa caucuses, the first vote to choose the Democratic
candidate to run against President Donald Trump in November’s election.
The vote has been chaotic, beset by technical problems and delays in
reporting results.
According to Iowa’s Democratic Party, data from 71% of precincts showed Pete
Buttigieg on 26.8%, with Bernie Sanders on 25.2%.
Elizabeth Warren was third on 18.4% and Joe Biden fourth on 15.4%.
According to the other preliminary results released on February 4 from all
of Iowa’s 99 counties, Amy Klobuchar was on 12.6%, and Andrew Yang on 1%. Tom
Steyer and Tulsi Gabbard were on less than 1%.
However, the state party has still not declared a winner from February 3
vote. Democrats have blamed the delay on a coding error with an app being used
for the first time to report the votes.
Iowa was the first contest in a string of nationwide state-by-state votes,
known as primaries and caucuses, that will culminate in the crowning of a
Democratic nominee at the party convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July.
Eleven candidates remain in a Democratic field that has already been
whittled down from more than two dozen.
The results represent the share of delegates needed to clinch the party
nomination under America’s quirky political system. Iowa awards only 41 of the
1,991 delegates required to become the Democratic White House nominee.
In the popular vote count, partial results showed Bernie Sanders leading
with 32,673 ballots, while Pete Buttigieg was second at 31,353.
However, Pete Buttigieg, 38, came top in certain rural areas with smaller
populations, and so far has more delegates.
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price told a news conference on February
4 the fiasco had been “simply unacceptable”.
“I apologize deeply for
this,” he said of the turmoil, which has provoked calls for Iowa to
lose its coveted spot atop the presidential voting calendar.
“This was a coding error,”
Troy Price said, while insisting the data was secure and promising a thorough
review.
Elizabeth Warren was third with 25,692, followed by Joe Biden at
16,447 and Amy Klobuchar at 15,470.
State party officials earlier said
the problem was not the result of “a hack or an intrusion”.
Officials were being dispatched
across the Hawkeye state to retrieve hard-copy results.
They were matching those numbers
against results reported via a mobile app that many precinct captains said had
crashed.
The mobile app was developed by tech
firm Shadow Inc., run by veterans of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential
campaign.
The app was put together in just two
months and had not been independently tested, the New York Times reported, quoting people briefed on the matter by the
Iowa Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party in Nevada, where
caucuses will be held on February 22, has reversed a decision to use the
company’s software.
Voters flocked on February 3 to more
than 1,600 caucus sites, including libraries, high schools and community centers.
President Trump said earlier that
the Iowa Democratic caucuses had been an “unmitigated disaster”.
If elected, Pete Buttigieg would be
the first openly gay US president.
The 38-year-old is the former mayor
of South Bend, Indiana, a city of just over 100,000 people.
Pete Buttigieg is a former Harvard
and Oxford University Rhodes scholar, who served as a military intelligence
officer in Afghanistan and used to work for global management consultancy
McKinsey.
Rivals say Pete Buttigieg, who is younger than Macaulay Culkin and Britney Spears, is too inexperienced to be US president.
Many have spent the past few weeks vigorously campaigning in Iowa, which is
always the first to vote. The primaries contest goes on until early June, and
moves on to New Hampshire next Tuesday.
Polls suggest that Bernie Sanders
has risen to be the favorite in Iowa.
He is one of four senators running
for president who have had to stay behind in Washington to attend President
Trump’s impeachment trial, but his supporters, including Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, a well-known congresswoman, have been energetically campaigning
on his behalf in Iowa.
Four years after losing out to
Hillary Clinton, the 78-year-old is now backed by a huge pot of donations and a
team of hundreds.
Some of the other big names
including Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg will be hoping
Bernie Sanders doesn’t have it all his own way in Iowa.
There are also Republican caucuses on February 3, and two people are running
against Donald Trump, but the president’s popularity within his own party is
such that his nomination is all but a formality.
Iowa, to some extent, provides a glimpse of what went wrong for Democrats in
2016.
In the last election, more than 200 counties flipped from supporting
President Barack Obama in 2012 to backing Donald Trump – and 31 of those
counties were in Iowa.
Democrats will be hoping to lure back those swing voters in 2020.
Howard County in northern Iowa flipped by 41 percentage points in 2016, the largest change in the US.
Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders has
announced his second bid for presidency in 2020.
Bernie Sanders, 77, became a
progressive political star in 2016 although he lost his candidacy bid.
His campaign says it raised $1 million
within three and half hours of launching.
An outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, the Vermont senator has described him as a “pathological liar” and “racist”.
Bernie Sanders – an independent who
caucuses with the Democrats – is one of the best-known names to join a crowded
and diverse field of Democratic candidates, and early polls suggest he is far
ahead.
His calls for universal
government-provided healthcare, a $15 national minimum wage and free college
education electrified young voters, raised millions of dollars in small
donations and are now pillars of the party’s left wing.
Bernie Sanders, who lost the 2016
Democratic primary to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said in his
email: “Three years ago, when we
talked about these and other ideas, we were told that they were ‘radical’ and
‘extreme’.
“Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the
political revolution. Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement
the vision that we fought for.”
President Trump, speaking to White
House reporters on February 19, wished Bernie Sanders well on his second bid.
The president said: “Personally I think he missed his time.
But I wish Bernie well. It will be interesting to see how he does.”
“He ran great four years ago and he was not treated
with respect by [Hillary] Clinton and that was too bad,” Donald Trump added.
President Trump added that he liked Bernie Sanders as they both have been “tough on trade”.
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