Senator Bennet quits presidential race

The Democratic presidential race became less crowded as Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado on Wednesday decided to quit the presidential race after a lackluster performance in the New Hampshire primary where he managed to garner only 0.3 per cent of the votes.

According to The New York Times, Mr Bennet did attract a handful of die-hard supporters on the campaign trail, including Gary Hart, the former Colorado senator and Democratic presidential nominee in 1984. But it wasn't enough for him to make a splash in the 2020 race.

The Senator joined the race late as he started his campaign in April, only after getting a clean bill of health. His late entry into the already crowded Democratic race meant that he lagged far behind the other candidates from the beginning and struggled to make an impact, He also struggled to raise funds for his campaign.

Bennet a two time Senator from Colorado ran as a moderate but faced stiff challenge from the other more well known moderates like former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders.

After quitting the race he showed his displeasure at the Democratic National Committee for excluding him from the debates, calling its criteria for inclusion "undemocratic" and saying it and Chairman Tom Perez were ''rewarding celebrity" and "stifling debates" with the polling and fundraising rules.

Bennet was the seventh senator to jump into the 2020 field and now, the fourth to drop out, after Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris.

The Senator however, encouraged voters to remain engaged and improve turnout in the November election when Democrats will seek to unseat Republican President Donald Trump.