“In this most desperate hour, I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win and which would interfere with the important work required of all of us,” Senator Bernie Sanders said in a video address on Wednesday morning.
The Vermont senator’s exit from the Democratic race establishes former Vice President Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee to challenge President Trump in November elections.
Mr. Sanders’s quest for the White House began in relative obscurity but ultimately elevated him as a champion of the American working class.
Analysis: The tops of the Republican and Democratic tickets are now clear, but the coronavirus pandemic has overtaken all other issues in the campaign and may well turn the election into a one-issue debate over Mr. Trump’s record in the crisis.
Mr 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.
"If I believed we had a feasible path to the nomination, I would certainly continue," he said.
Mr 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".
"Please also appreciate that not only are we winning the struggle ideologically, we are also winning it generationally."
Mr Sanders 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."
Mr Sanders also congratulated Mr Biden, and said that he will work with him to "move our progressive ideas forward".
The senator 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." BBC NEWS
