Bernie Sanders is ending his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
It clears the way for Joe Biden to take on Donald Trump in the 2020 race for the White House
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders launched his second campaign for the Democratic nomination last year.
He retained large levels of support from young voters and the party's progressive wing following his campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
However, Mr Sanders today said the path towards victory in the current race was "virtually impossible" and that he'd made the "very difficult and painful decision" to suspend his campaign.
Today I am suspending my campaign. But while the campaign ends, the struggle for justice continues on. https://t.co/MYc7kt2b16
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 8, 2020
Despite some calls from supporters to continue campaigning until the final primary votes, he said the ongoing COVID-19 crisis meant he could not in good conscience continue a campaign he could not win.
However, he pledged that the broader movement behind his campaign and policies was not coming to an end.
The 78-year-old Senator said he'd now work with Joe Biden to move "progressive ideas forward" and to defeat Donald Trump in November.
Mr Sanders - a democratic socialist who became the most public US proponent of policies such as universal healthcare (Medicare-for-all) - enjoyed some early victories in the primary campaign, picking up crucial wins in New Hampshire and Nevada.
However, his campaign began to struggle as moderate Democrats such as Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg ended their own campaigns and threw their support behind Mr Biden.
