Elizabeth Warren has just fallen on her sword.
After a humiliating night on Super Tuesday, which saw Biden beat her by a disastrous 12.5 points in her home state, it she's told the world she's dropping out entirely in a
heartbreaking Medium post
where she summarises what she told her staffers in a phone call.
Warren follows Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and most recently Michael Bloomberg as the last potential frontrunner to give up in the face of the two-white-men-in-their-70s race that has now become inevitable.
Since declaring her candidacy for the nomination last year, Warren has built a solid bloc of support which loudly floods social media. Her "I have a plan for that" refrain and notorious selfie queues, as well as her undeniably witty quips at every turn were everything young, educated feminists on Twitter were here for, and it seemed that in the digital space, she couldn't be more popular.
Yet her memeability and likeability did not translate into votes.
With the moderate vote no longer split, her dropping out leaves the road open for Sanders to grab hold of every possible vote from the left of the party.
It remains to be seen whether she will move past her feud with former bestie Bernie and formally endorse him, but by simply stepping back she will undoubtedly boost his numbers, which is crucial with six more states voting next week. Particularly so in Michigan and Washington, which award a huge 254 delegates between them, and see Sanders polling way ahead of current frontrunner Biden.
Despite the fact that this could be good news for the progressive left, many of her supporters are sad to see her leave the race.
Fellow Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand (who was also briefly a candidate for presidential nominee), highlighted the impact of a woman getting this far.
John Kerry, who preceeded Warren as Massachussets Senator and (arguably) lost to George Bush in the hotly contested 2004 election, echoed the sentiment.
Representative Ilhan Omar, who essentially called for Warren to drop out last week, pointed out that Warren's impact on raising the bar in the race should also not be understated.
Almost-Georgia governor Stacey Abrams had thoughts too.
Her scathing attack on Bloomberg during his first debate will be one for the history books.
Overall, it seems her dropping out at this point may be the best move for her career and the most "likeable" thing she's done in a while. The gushing could not be more hardcore.
A national treasure!
Brilliant! Committed! Tenacious!
And people really really don't want her (or her supporters) to side with Biden.
It's a sad day for those hoping 2020 may have been the year that US politics finally decided to actually acknowledge the value of women, rather than just milking them for all we can and then throwing them a way in favour of less qualified men.
In the words of Warren herself:
"Our work continues, the fight goes on, and big dreams never die."
