Bennet Drops Out Of Presidential Race

Michael Bennet, the Colorado senator and former public school superintendent, is ending his campaign for the presidency, he said.

Bennet’s exit comes on the night of the New Hampshire primary, after he said he needed to finish in the top three or four to continue.

“I’ve got to do well here,” Bennet said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “I bet it all on New Hampshire.”

Bennet’s final push through New Hampshire included 50 town halls in the last 10 weeks leading up to the primary, a tour in which he touted himself, a moderate Democrat, as someone who could defeat President Donald Trump.

Bennet, 55, entered the race last May, a decision he made after successfully undergoing surgery for prostate cancer. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008, he touted his track record of working with Republicans and winning elections in Colorado, a “purple state.”

Unlike some of his more liberal opponents, Bennet opposed Medicare-for-all, instead supporting keeping private insurance while allowing people to buy into a public option. He called for doing away with the electoral college but did not support adding justices to the Supreme Court.

In a crowded primary field, Bennet found it difficult to break through, though he outlasted several other candidates. At one point, he tried to use his steadiness as an advantage, suggesting he would be boring compared to Trump – and that that was a good thing.

“If you elect me president, I promise you won’t have to think about me for 2 weeks at a time,” Bennet tweeted last August, a message he later converted into a campaign ad. “… So you can go raise your kids and live your lives.”

Toward the end of his campaign, Bennet focused most of his time and resources on New Hampshire while his opponents were criss-crossing Iowa. For much of January, however, Bennet found himself stuck in Washington for Senate impeachment proceedings, unable to travel even to the Granite State to campaign.

He hung on through the Iowa caucuses, where he received zero percent of the state delegate equivalents and no national delegates.

Bennet was the second candidate to drop out Tuesday, after Andrew Yang earlier in the night announced the end of his presidential bid. Nine candidates remain in the hunt for the Democratic presidential nomination.

(c) 2020, The Washington Post · Amy B Wang  

{Matzav.com}