Elizabeth Warren ends presidential campaign

Sen.+Elizabeth+Warren+speaks+to+supporters+on+Feb.+3+in+Des+Moines+after+the+Iowa+Democratic+caucuses.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks to supporters on Feb. 3 in Des Moines after the Iowa Democratic caucuses.

Jake Webster

Elizabeth Warren ended her presidential campaign with a press conference outside her home near Boston on Thursday.

“I know how hard all of you have worked,” Warren said to her entire campaign staff, according to a readout of a phone call made available to reporters. “I know how you disrupted your lives to be part of this. I know you have families and loved ones you could have spent more time with. You missed them and they missed you. And I know you have sacrificed to be here.”

The end of Warren’s campaign leaves the presidential race without a major woman candidate. Tulsi Gabbard remains in the race, though she has accumulated just one delegate compared to Joe Biden’s 603 and Bernie Sanders’ 538, according to NPR delegate projections.

In Warren’s press conference Thursday afternoon, she seemed to reflect on the deeper meaning of the end of her candidacy. Warren’s campaign would have been a glass-ceiling-shattering one had she won the White House.

“One of the hardest parts of this is […] all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years,” Warren said. “That’s gonna be hard.”

Warren had briefly achieved Iowa caucus frontrunner status, peaking with a summit atop September’s Selzer & Co. poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucusgoers conducted for the Des Moines Register, CNN and Mediacom.

Warren went on to finish third in the Iowa caucuses, her highest finish of any of the four states with February primary contests. She finished third in her home state of Massachusetts on Tuesday alongside a series of other third and fourth place finishes in Super Tuesday primary contests across the country.

The senior senator from Massachusetts said in her press conference her campaign left her with no regrets.

“This has been the honor of a lifetime,” Warren said. “Ten years ago I was teaching a few blocks from here and talking about what was broken in America and ideas for how to fix it, and pretty much nobody wanted to hear it. And I’ve had a chance to get out there and talk with millions of people, and you know we have ideas now that we talk about that we weren’t even talking about a year ago.”

Warren declined to endorse any of the remaining presidential contenders, and headed back inside the home she announced her presidential bid outside of little more than a year ago.