Michael Bennet ends presidential bid

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday after early returns in the New Hampshire primary showed him with less than 1 percent of the vote in the Granite State. 

Bennet launched his campaign last spring but struggled to gain traction in the crowded primary field. He largely punted on a campaign in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state, opting instead to compete in New Hampshire. 

But even there he never struck a chord with voters. As primary returns in the state were counted on Tuesday night, they showed Bennet lagging far behind the field’s top-tier candidates.

Bennet pursued the moderate lane in the primary, warning against backing a candidate who would push the Democratic Party too far to the left. On the other hand, he pitched himself as an escape from the chaos and drama of the Trump administration.

“If you elect me president, I promise you won’t have to think about me for two weeks at a time,” he tweeted last summer.

But in a crowded primary field with high-profile candidates such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden, Bennet ultimately failed to resonate with Democratic primary voters nervously in search of a nominee capable of defeating Trump in November.

Bennet was the second candidate to end his presidential bid Tuesday night. His announcement came less than an hour after another hopeful, former tech executive Andrew Yang, suspended his campaign.