Will Bernie Sanders Endorse Joe Biden Or Hold Out Like Elizabeth Warren?

The near-clean sweep by Joe Biden during the primary elections on Super Tuesday 2 may be the final nail in what has been shaping up as the coffin for Bernie Sanders’ campaign. But it was unclear when — or if — the senator from Vermont would drop out the race, let alone who – or, again, if – Sanders would endorse in his failed stead.

When pressed, Sanders has vowed to support the eventual Democratic nominee. But since that won’t be formally decided until the Democratic National Convention this summer in Milwaukee, he just might not make a formal endorsement until then. That was the perceived treatment from Elizabeth Warren, who suspended her own campaign last week in the wake of similarly devastating losses on the first Super Tuesday. She was initially rumored to have been coordinating with Sanders’ campaign to determine a way to endorse him, but that never happened. Now, one week later, Sanders is all but poised to do the same as she.

Super Tuesday 2 saw Sanders lose support to Biden from among white college-educated voters and independent voters, according to exit polls cited by CNN. As of early Wednesday morning, CNN projected that Biden was the winner of primaries in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi and Missouri, with inconclusive results in North Dakota and Washington state. That gave Biden 759 delegates to Sanders’ 621. Each was expected to gain more delegates once returns were in from North Dakota and Washington, but Biden was still guaranteed to widen his already formidable lead.

A Painter and Social Activist With an ‘Unruly Nature’

But in the meantime, there as the lingering question of whether supporters of both Sanders and Warren will gravitate toward Biden, if anyone. If anything, it seems more than likely that Warren’s supporters will rally around Team Biden sooner than Sanders’ supporters would, seeing as the two senators were not that far removed from their very public spat when she accused him of making a sexist remark about her chances of becoming president this year.

Having Warren’s supporters coalesce around Biden’s campaign would be a huge boon for Biden, who would gladly welcome them all, including Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, an influential Black woman congressman who has been one of the most staunch opponents of President Donald Trump, the man who in theory should be uniting Democrats heading into the 2020 Election.

Other presidential candidates who have dropped out of the race have ultimately endorsed Biden. They include Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar. On Tuesday, Andrew Yang joined them in endorsing Biden, too.

With that said, Sanders may not be ready to call it quits regardless of how the math looks surrounding delegates. The next Democratic debate is scheduled for Sunday and that could give Sanders a chance to go one-on-one with Biden, a head-to-head contest that could skew in the senator’s favor, restore fuel to his stalling campaign and set him up for a chance to redeem himself in next week’s primaries in Arizona, Illinois, Florida and Ohio to tighten up the race.

Whether true or not, the perception has largely been that Warren is taking too long to endorse a candidate, harkening back to four years ago when Sanders dropped out of the race but did not immediately endorse Hillary Clinton. Sanders finally endorsed Clinton weeks after Warren and even President Barack Obamaannounced their support. In that case, the Washington Post speculated that Sanders may have been hesitant to endorse Clinton because he thought that might anger his supporters.

Source: Will Bernie Sanders Endorse Joe Biden Or Hold Out Like Elizabeth Warren?