Kamala Harris ended her 2020 presidential campaign on Tuesday, an abrupt departure for a candidate who was once seen as a leading contender for the Democratic nomination.
The California Democrat told her senior staff of the decision Tuesday morning, and later sent an email to supporters and released a video on Twitter.
“To you my supporters, my dear supporters, it is with deep regret — but also with deep gratitude — that I am suspending our campaign today,” Harris said in the video.
“But I want to be clear with you: I am still very much in this fight,” Harris continued. “And I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for the people. All the people.”
Harris, 55, would have been the first woman and second black U.S. president if elected next November.
Harris’ exit from the race is a precipitous fall for a candidate who launched her campaign to high expectations.The senator has struggled for months to move her low poll numbers and said Tuesday that financial pressures led her to end her bid. The lack of support and money led to internal squabbling in the closing months of the campaign.”I’m not a billionaire,” she added in a swipe at wealthy businessmen Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, who are funding their own long-shot campaigns. “And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.”
The announcement is perhaps the most surprising development to date in a fluid Democratic presidential campaign where Ms. Harris began in the top tier. Her departure removes a prominent woman of color from a field that started as the most racially diverse ever in a Democratic primary and raises the prospect that this month’s debate in Los Angeles will feature no candidates who aren’t white.
Post announcement of her dropping out of candidature, Donald Trump tweeted “miss you” and tagged Kamala Harris to which she tweeted back and wrote “see you at the trial”.
