Updated at 5:16 p.m.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is reconsidering his role in the presidential race, campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a written statement Wednesday morning.

"The next primary contest is at least three weeks away," Shakir wrote. "Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign."

In the meantime, Shakir continued, the senator "is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable."

Asked by a CNN reporter at the U.S. capitol on Wednesday for more details about the state of his candidacy, Sanders said, “Anybody who suggests that at this point we are ending the campaign is not telling the truth.”

Later on Wednesday, Sanders erupted at a group of reporters when asked again about his campaign. “I’m dealing with a fucking global crisis,” he said, adding, “Right now, I’m trying to do my best to make sure that we don’t have an economic meltdown and that people don’t die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?”

The remarks came a day after former vice president Joe Biden defeated Sanders in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, widening his lead by at least 133 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Biden now has 1,147 pledged delegates, and Sanders has 861.

In recent days, several states have delayed primaries in response to public health concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. Puerto Rico is currently scheduled to hold a primary on March 29, and Alaska, Hawaii and Wyoming are slated to vote April 4.

The Sanders campaign has suspended all television and digital advertising for the time being in order to conserve resources, according to spokesperson Mike Casca.

In an email to supporters Monday morning, Shakir was blunt. “No sugarcoating it, last night did not go the way we wanted,” he wrote. “And while our campaign has won the battle of ideas, we are losing the battle over electability to Joe Biden.”

According to Shakir, Sanders and his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, plan to return to Vermont after he casts votes on a coronavirus relief package. “Once there, they’ll begin holding conversations with supporters to get input and assess the path forward for our campaign,” Shakir wrote.
As Seven Days reported this week, the outbreak has complicated Sanders' hopes of staging a comeback after falling behind on Super Tuesday. "He's gotta figure out how he wins something," said Mark Longabaugh, who served as a senior adviser on Sanders' 2016 campaign.

Though Sanders has not publicly indicated he would drop out of the campaign, he also has not vowed to fight on to its conclusion. Often in politics, statements that a candidate is reassessing his or her role in a race are followed by the candidate’s withdrawal.

On Tuesday night, Sanders delivered remarks from his campaign office in Washington, D.C., outlining several policy proposals to address the coronavirus crisis. Those included a $2,000 monthly payment to every American, free healthcare for the duration of the outbreak and stronger enforcement measures to crack down on price gouging.

For the second week in a row, Sanders did not immediately respond to the day’s election results.

They greeted each other with an elbow bump and discussed their personal hygiene strategies. They were asked whether they would order a national lockdown or deploy the military to fight a disease. Their every cough and face-swipe drew notice.

For a time at Sunday’s Democratic presidential debate — broadcast from an audience-free studio in Washington, D.C. — nothing seemed normal. With a global pandemic sweeping through the United States, former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) sought to meet the gravity of the moment and offer a contrast to President Donald Trump, whose response to the spread of coronavirus they criticized.

“We need unprecedented action right now to deal with the unprecedented crisis,” Sanders said.

“We're at war with a virus,” Biden said. “In a war, you do whatever is needed to be done to take care of your people.”

It didn’t take long, however, for the candidates to return to more familiar terrain, with Sanders arguing that, under his "Medicare for All" plan, Americans would be better prepared to fight the outbreak. “Let’s be honest and understand that this coronavirus pandemic exposes the incredible weakness and dysfunctionality of our current health care system,” he said.

Updated 9:52 a.m. on March 16, 2020.

Former Vermont education secretary Rebecca Holcombe leads all gubernatorial candidates in the race for cash, pulling in $378,000 since she announced her campaign for the Democratic nomination last July, according to a filing produced Sunday with the Secretary of State’s Office.

Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, a Progressive/Democrat who announced his campaign six months after Holcombe, pulled in about $156,000 while carrying over $27,000 from his last campaign, filings showed.

The Democratic primary’s most recent entrant, meanwhile, Bennington personal injury lawyer Patrick Winburn, raised $106,000, nearly all of which consists of his own money.
Sunday night marked the first campaign finance filing deadline for state candidates since July 1, 2019. The disclosures offer an early look at the fundraising strength of those vying for Vermont’s top offices.

Speaking from Burlington on Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made his case that the unfolding coronavirus pandemic has exposed the "absurdity" of the country's economic and health care systems. 

"In this moment of crisis, more and more people understand that we need fundamental changes to our economy, we need fundamental changes to our heath care system," he told reporters at Hotel Vermont, where he has delivered remarks every day since Wednesday.

On Thursday, Sanders compared the pandemic to a world war and called for proportional emergency response. Friday's comments signaled that the Democratic presidential candidate sees coronavirus as a chance to broaden the appeal of "Medicare for All" and other proposals that his opponents for months have cast as too radical.
"If this isn't a red flag for the current dysfunctional and wasteful health care system, frankly, I don't know what is," Sanders said.

The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe is "on the scale of a major war," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Thursday, calling for swift action aimed at protecting the vulnerable from the fallout.

"If there ever was a time in the modern history of our country when we are all in this together, this is that moment," Sanders told reporters at Hotel Vermont in Burlington. "Now is the time to come together with love and compassion for all, including the most vulnerable people in our society who will face this pandemic from a health perspective or face it from an economic perspective."

Sanders and former vice president Joe Biden both heavily criticized President Donald Trump's handling of the epidemic following his prime time address Wednesday night in which he announced a ban on travelers from Europe. Each spoke as lawmakers on Capitol Hill scrambled to put together a broad aid package and canceled a scheduled U.S. Senate recess.

Updated at 4:17 p.m.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday afternoon that he would continue his fight for the Democratic presidential nomination — at least through Sunday's debate in Arizona.

Speaking to reporters at Burlington’s Hotel Vermont, Sanders conceded that he was “currently losing the delegate count” to former vice president Joe Biden, who has emerged in recent weeks as the prohibitive frontrunner.

“Last night, obviously, was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view,” Sanders said, referring to his losses Tuesday in Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho. As of Wednesday afternoon, Biden had claimed at least 860 delegates compared with 710 for Sanders.

The senator also acknowledged that he was “losing the debate over electability," saying that many voters had told his campaign that they supported his policies but believed Biden was better suited to take on President Donald Trump.

“Needless to say, I strongly disagree with that assertion, but that is what millions of Democrats and independents today believe,” he said.

Updated March 11 at 1:56 a.m.

Four years ago this week, Michigan Democrats handed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) an unexpected victory and revived his foundering presidential campaign. On Tuesday night, history did not repeat itself.

Former vice president Joe Biden won Michigan’s make-or-break Democratic primary by what appeared to be a decisive margin. With 88 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday morning, Biden was leading Sanders 53 to 37 percent.

The margin appeared to be far wider in other states that voted on “Big Tuesday.” In Missouri, Biden led Sanders 60 to 35 percent, and in Mississippi 81 to 15 percent. Both states were called for the former vice president as soon as polls closed Tuesday evening.

By early Wednesday morning, it appeared that Biden had also prevailed in Idaho — a state Sanders had won by 57 points in 2016. Sanders was leading only in Washington and North Dakota, though both races were too close to call.

Updated on March 7, 2020.

In the only contested Burlington School Board race Tuesday night, newcomer Aden Haji knocked off Keith Pillsbury, the incumbent who'd served 23 nonconsecutive years on the board since 1987.

Haji, 25, earned about 58 percent of the votes (533) to Pillsbury's 41 percent (371) en route to winning the Ward 8 seat.


“I know everybody brings something new to the table, but I felt like my voice was really needed due to the experience that I’ve had,” Haji said.

Pillsbury, a retired Essex middle school teacher, said he's offered to help Haji in any way he can. While the loss is bittersweet, Pillsbury said serving on the board is a big time commitment, and he was looking forward to having more time to himself.

"I have done my community service," Pillsbury said. "Aden is a success story of the Burlington school system. I wish him all the best."

Before he decided to run for president in 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) famously waited to see whether his friend and progressive ally, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), would do so first.

Now, following Warren's announcement Thursday that she's exiting the 2020 race, Sanders is waiting to see whether she'll endorse his candidacy — and unite the progressive wing of the Democratic Party behind his campaign.

Speaking Thursday at Burlington International Airport, Sanders confirmed that he had spoken to Warren for a second day in row since her disappointing finish in the Super Tuesday primaries. He would not say whether he had asked for her support, but he characterized their conversation as "positive" and praised her candidacy.

"You know, I've been in politics for a little while, and I have seen many, many campaigns — including campaigns that have spent a lot of money — kind of fade away. The message fades away the day after the candidate drops out or loses," Sanders said. "That will not be the case with Sen. Warren."