Senator Kamala Harris, who was once seen as a top tier contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, dropped out of the race on Tuesday.
"I've taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life," the California senator wrote in a note to supporters. "My campaign for president simply doesn't have the financial resources we need to continue."
Harris spent the early days of her campaign as a promising candidate, rising as high as second place in the Real Clear Politics poll average in July, but has struggled with finances as well as reports of staff disorganization and infighting, according to the New York Times.
By November, she was polling in the low single digits and laid off her New Hampshire field team to increase her focus on Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses on February 3.
Though she had shifted focus to the Hawkeye State, she lacked the cash to run TV ads in Iowa, a state in which Harris had not run an ad in three months. Only recently, support for a super PAC made up of former aides to pay for advertising began to gain traction within the campaign.
Harris was one of seven candidates who had already qualified for the sixth debate, which will be held in her home state of California, before today's announcement.
The senator had started her campaign in front of a crowd of20,000 in Oakland, according to her campaign, and said she is withdrawing "with deep regret — but also with deep gratitude."
Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding joined Closing Bell to explain why ending the travel mask mandates could put the U.S. in a bad position in the coming months as new COVID-19 variants threaten to cause another spike in cases.
Toby Fricker, the chief of communications for UNICEF, joined Cheddar News to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine as the Russian invasion continues, displacing at least five million refugees from their home country. "The situation for children is horrific when you have to leave your home. I mean, that's traumatic for any child anywhere, but being forced to run for your life literally is really horrific to think about that," he said.
Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard University, joined Cheddar News to talk about the legal underpinnings of the ruling to lift the federal travel mask mandate. "Judge Mizelle decided that she would issue a nationwide injunction, which she and other conservatives have criticized in the past," he said. "That didn't stop her from doing it this time. She did it by just wiping away the CDC's rule, and she did it, have to say, in an opinion that was, well, I'll be honest, really stupid."
Marijuana legalization has spread across the country in recent years, and the number of Americans in support of legalization is at an all-time high. Andrew Bowden, CEO of the premium cannabis brand Item 9 Labs, joined Cheddar to break down the inner workings of the industry and how the industry can grow from here.
After a nationwide mask mandate for travel was struck down by a federal judge, Dr. Sampson Davis, an ER physician and bestselling author, joined Cheddar News to talk about the ramifications. "We are at a place where we are going to have to wait and see, unfortunately," he said. "The good news is that we're coming off a celebration of spring break, Easter, Passover, and we'll see what happens. But right now I'm not seeing a spike and people come into the hospital are truly sick. However, I'm still seeing people test positive for COVID."
Chris Vecchio, senior strategist at DailyFX, says the James Bullard and the Fed's bark may be louder than its bite when it comes to potential rate hikes in May. Investors brushed off any causes for concerns during Tuesday's session, which led to stocks ending the day sharply higher.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 19, 2022, with a federal judge voiding mask mandates on public transportation, updates from the Russia and Ukraine war, Mac Miller’s drug dealer sentenced for involvement in the rapper's death, and more.
