, the heat of nevada and south carolina. And in states throughout the country. I want to thank the 2 million americans who have contributed financially to our campaign, and showed the world that we can take on a corrupt Campaign Finance system. And run a major president ial campaign without being dependent on the wealthy and powerful. Thank you for your 10 million contributions, averaging 18. 50 a donation. I want to thank those who phone bank for our campaign and those who sent out millions of texts. I want to thank the americans who attended our rallies and house parties from new york to california. Some of these events had over 25,000 people, some had a few hundred and some had a dozen, but all were important. Let me thank those who made the many events possible. I want to thank our surrogates, too many to name. I cannot imagine that any candidate has ever been blessed with a stronger and more dedicated group of people who have taken her message to every part of this country. I want to thank all of those who made the music in the art an integral part of our campaign. I want to thank all of you who spoke to your friends and neighbors, posted on social media, and worked as hard as you could to make this a better country. Together we have transformed american consciousness as to what kind of nation we can become. We have taken this country a major step forward in the never ending struggle for economic justice, social justice, Racial Justice and environmental justice. I also want to thank the many hundreds of people on our campaign staff. Your willingness to move from one state to another, and do all the work to do at had to be done. No job was too big or too small for you. You rolled up your sleeves and you did it. Words at thethe core of our movement. Not me, but us. I thank each and everyone of you for what you have done. As many of you will recall, nelson mandela, one of the great Freedom Fighters in modern World History famously said in all these things impossible until it is done. What he meant by that is at the greatest obstacle to wield real social change has everything to do with the power of the corporate and political establishment to limit our vision as to what is possible, and what we are entitled to. As human beings. If we dont believe that we are entitled to health care as a human right, we will never achieve universal health care. If we dont believe we are entitled to decent wages and working conditions, millions of us will continue to live in poverty. If we dont believe that we are entitled to all of the education we required to fill our dream, many of us will leave school saddled with huge debt or never get the education we need. If we dont believe that we are entitled to live in a world that has a Clean Environment and is not ravaged by climate change, we will continue to see more drought, flood, rising sea levels and increasing uninhabitable planets. If we dont believe that we are entitled to live in a world of justice, democracy and fairness. Without racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia a religious bigotry, we will continue to have massive income and wealth inequalities, prejudice and hatred, mass incarceration, terrified immigrants, and hundreds of thousands of americans sleeping out on the streets in the richest country on earth. And focusing on that new vision for america is what our campaign has been about. And what we have accomplished. Few would deny that over the course of the past five years our movement has won the ideological struggle in socalled red states, blue states and purple states, a majority of the American People now understand that we must raise the minimum wage to at least 15 an hour. That we must guarantee health care as a right to all of our people. That we must transform our Energy System for fossil fuel. Away from fossil fuel and that Higher Education must be available for all, regardless of income. It was not long ago that people considered the radical and fringe. Today they are mainstream ideas and many are already being implemented in cities and states across the country. That is what we have accomplished together. In terms of health care, even before this horrific pandemic we are now experiencing, more and more americans understand that understood that we must move to a medicare for all singlepayer program. During the primary elections exit polls showed in state after , state a Strong Majority of democratic primary voters supported a single Government Health Insurance Program to replace private insurance. That was true even in states where our campaign did not prevail. Let me just say this, in terms of health care, this current horrific crisis that we are now in has exposed for all to see how absurd our current employerbased Health Insurance system is. The current economic downturn we are experiencing has not only lead to a massive loss of jobs, but has resulted in millions of americans losing their Health Insurance. While americans have been told over and over again how wonderful our employerbased private insurance system is, those claims sound very hollow, today has a growing number of today as a growing number of unemployed workers struggling with how they can afford to go to a doctor or not go bankrupt with a huge hospital bill. We have always believed that Health Care Must be considered as a human right, not an employee benefit. We are right. Please also appreciate that not only are we winning the struggle ideologically, we are also winning it generationally. The future of our country rests with young people. In state after state, whether we won or lost the democratic primaries or caucuses, we received a significant majority of the vote, sometimes an overwhelming majority from people not only 30 years of age or under, but 50 years of age or younger. In other words, the future of this country is with our ideas. As we are all painfully aware, we now face an unprecedented crisis. Not only are we dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, with a which is taking lives of many thousands of our people, we are also dealing with an economic meltdown that has resulted in the loss of millions of jobs. Today, families all across our country face Financial Hardship unimaginable only a few months ago. And because of the unacceptable levels of income and wealth inequality in our economy many , of our friends and neighbors have little or no savings and are desperately trying to pay their rent or mortgage, or even put food on the table. This reality makes it clear to me that Congress Must address this unprecedented in an unprecedented way that protects the health and economic wellbeing of the working families of our country, not just powerful special interests. As a member of the democratic leadership in the United States senate, and as a senator from the state of vermont, this is something that i intend to intensely be involved in over the next number of months, and that will require an enormous amount of work. Which takes me to the state of our president ial campaign. I wish i could give you better news, but i think you know the truth. That is that we are now some 300 delegates behind Vice President biden, and the path towards victory is virtually impossible. While we are winning the isla ideological battle and winning the support of so many young people and working people throughout the country, i have concluded that this battle for the democratic nomination will not be successful. And so today, i am announcing the suspension of my campaign. Please know that i do not make this decision lightly. In fact, it has been a very difficult and painful decision. Over the past few weeks, jane and i, in consultation with top staff and many of our prominent supporters, have made an honest assessment of the prospect to victory. If i believed we had a feasible path to the nomination, i would certainly continue the campaign. But its just not there. I know that there may be some in our movement that disagree and would like us to fight on until the last ballot is cast at the Democratic Convention. I understand that position. But as i see the crisis gripping the nation, exacerbated by a president unable to provide any kind of credible leadership, and the work then used to be done to that needs to be done to protect people in this most desperate i cannot in good hour, conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win, and which will interfere with the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour. Let me say this very emphatically. As you all know, we have never been just a campaign. We are a grassroots multiracial, multi generational movements that has always believe that real change never comes from the top down, but always from the bottom up. We have taken on wall street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the militaryindustrial complex the , Prison Industrial Complex and the greed of the entire corporate elite. That struggle continues. While this campaign is coming to an end, our movement is not. Dr. Martin luther king jr. Reminded us that the moral the ark of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. The fight for justice is what our campaign has been about. The fight for justice is what our movement remains about. Today i congratulate joe biden, a very decent man who i will work with to move our progressive ideas forward. On a practical note, let me also say this. I will stay on the ballot in all the states and continue to gather delegates while Vice President biden will be the nominee. Tomust continue working assemble as many delegates as possible at the Democratic Convention where we will be able to exert significant influence over the partys platform and other functions. Then together, standing united, we will go forward to defeat donald trump, the most dangerous president in modern american history. And we will fight to elect strong progressives at every level of government from congress to the school board. As i hope all of you know, this race has never been about me. I ran for the presidency because i believed as a president i could accelerate and institutionalize the progressive changes that we are all building together. And if we keep organizing and fighting, i have no doubt that that is exactly what will happen. While the path may be slower now, we will change this nation, and with likeminded friends around the globe, change the entire world. On a very personal note, speaking for jane, myself and our entire family, we will always carry in our hearts the memories of the Extraordinary People we have met across this country. We often hear about the beauty t across the country. We often hear about the beauty of america, and this country is incredibly beautiful. To me, the beauty i will remember most is in the faces of the people we have met from one corner of this nation to the other. The compassion, love, and decency i have seen in them makes me so hopeful for our future. It also makes me more determined than ever to work to create a nation that reflects those values and lifts up all of our people. Please stay in this fight with together, go forward the struggle continues. Thank you all very much. On twitter, joe biden reacted to senator sanderson spending his president ial campaign with the message, to bernie and jane from jill and me, you have not just run a commit a political campaign, you have created a movement. Make no mistake about it, it is a movement as powerful today as it was yesterday. It is a good thing for our nation and future. Bernies supporters, i know that i need your votes that i want you to know that i see and hear you, and i understand the urgency of this moment. I hope you will join us, you are more than welcome, you are needed. An update on the Coronavirus Response from the rhode island governor. She talks about testing capacity, access to food and essential supplies, and the importance of adhering to social distancing guidelines or
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