Pictured are Democratic U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (wearing eye glasses), who this week suspended his campaign for president, former vice president and likely Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden, and former president Barack Obama, also a Democrat and the nations's first Black president who served two terms as president (2009-2016) with Biden as his vice president

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

By Kathy WRay Coleman, senior political reporter, editor-in-chief

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign came to an end on Wednesday when the self-described socialist Democrat, a two-time candidate for president and Vermont senator whose grassroots campaign galvanized voters and made him a household name, quit the race for the Democratic nomination for president, leaving former vice president Joe Biden as the clear presumptive nominee to take on incumbent president Donald Trump for the November general election.

Sanders said during a live-stream presentation that it was time for him to bow out.

He said there was no clear path to the nomination.

"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," Sanders told supporters.

And the longtime federal lawmaker called Biden, a former U.S. senator who served with him and later became vice president under Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, "a very decent man who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward."

But he stopped short of endorsing Biden and pledged to do everything in his power to help the Democrats get Trump out of office, an indication that a likely endorsement is forthcoming.

He said that the campaign between Biden and Trump will likely be "a pretty rough and I suspect pretty mean campaign."

Considered a long shot in 2016, Sanders won 23 primaries and caucuses and 43% of pledged delegates in his loss in the  primary to Democrat Hillary Clinton, who got 55% and went on to win the nomination, only to lose the general election to Trump months later.

His political platform advocating for a $15- an-hour minimum wage, income equality, criminal justice reform and free college tuition and healthcare for all resonated with voters, younger voters in particular, and activists and progressive voters.

He fought all the way to the Democratic National Convention relative to his 2016 loss of the nomination to Clinton, forcing the Democratic National Committee to change its rules on superdelegates, who now only get a vote on the first ballot unless the outcome is uncertain.

During his bid this time around he nearly won Iowa, coming in second place, and he went on to win New Hampshire and Nevada, Biden, powered by the Black vote and an endorsement from Black U.S. Rep James Clyburn, later winning South Carolina, and Super Tuesday, and never looking back.

By the time he called it quits on Wednesday he said his campaign lagged behind in more than 300 pledged delegates, Biden with 1, 217 pledged delegates and Sanders with 914, a candidate needing 1,991 delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.

Meanwhile, Democrats immediately began courting Obama and urging the former junior U.S. senator from Illinois who made history in 2008 when he was elected as America's first Black president to quickly endorse his former vice president, the Black vote no doubt crucial for the 2020 election.

It fell seven percentage points from 2012 to 2016, Obama' s last year in office, with Blacks making up 12 percent of the electorate that year.

An avid campaigner and brilliant orator, Obama has influence over the Democratic vote, and the Black vote, and he and Biden are tight, sources say, Biden often quoting Obama during debates and regularly pushing his healthcare and other policies on the campaign trail, campaigning for this year's presidential election virtually coming to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic that began gripping the nation last month.

The Black vote is obviously nothing to play with, or to take for granted.

Some 4 million Obama voters stayed home in 2016 when Clinton lost to Trump, and he too is courting the Black vote in 2020, or at least he is posturing on the matter.

Biden, 77, remains the pragmatic choice of Black voters in general, and southern and elderly Black voters simply adore him.

A Republican with a strong base of supporters, President Trump still lags behind him in nearly every poll, including Qunnipiac, CNN, and  Emerson polls that have Biden anywhere from four to seven percentage points ahead if the election were held today, the Emerson poll showing a Biden Trump election night showdown in November at 53-47%.

Only the conservative-leaning Fox News poll shows the duo tied at 42-42%, the president often offended and on the attack if political polls suggest he might be out of a job next year.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.