Bernie Sanders was hospitalized with chest discomfort and has cancelled all 2020 campaign events until further notice

Associated Press

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., leaves after speaking at a campaign event, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. (AP Photo/ Cheryl Senter)

• Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign on Wednesday announced he'd been hospitalized in Las Vegas, Nevada, due to chest discomfort.
• Sanders, 78, has canceled all 2020 campaign events until further notice.
• "Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted. Sen. Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. He will be resting up over the next few days," the . senator's campaign said in a statement.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, 78, was hospitalized in Las Vegas, Nevada, due to chest discomfort and has canceled all 2020 campaign events indefinitely.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Sanders' senior adviser Jeff Weaver said: "During a campaign event yesterday evening, Sen. Sanders experienced some chest discomfort. Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted. Sen. Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. He will be resting up over the next few days."

Weaver added, "We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates."

The top three candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, which includes Sanders, are septuagenarians. Former Vice President Joe Biden is 77 and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is 70. The issue of age has come up at times and been a point of controversy. After former HUD Secretary Julián Castro challenged Biden on whether he'd forgotten what he said a few moments ago during the most recent presidential primary debate, for example, some pundits accused him of ageism.

Sanders has dismissed concerns about his age along the campaign trail.

When asked about it during an interview in February, Sanders said, "We have got to look at candidates, you know, not by the color of their skin, not by their sexual orientation or their gender, and not by their age. I mean, I think we have got to try to move us toward a nondiscriminatory society, which looks at people based on their abilities, based on what they stand for."

"I have been very blessed in my life with good health," Sanders continued, adding: "I'm very lucky that as a kid I was a long-distance runner, and I think I had and still have a great deal of energy. So I would ask people to look at the totality of who I am - my energy level, my record in the US Senate - and not just at one criterion."

Prior to launching his campaign, Sanders last October told Politico that his age would "obviously" be a "factor" if he ultimately decided to run.

Despite his age, Sanders is particularly popular with young voters: A mid-September NBC/Wall Street Journal survey showed that a third of voters under 35 supported him. Comparatively, Warren, who led Biden by roughly two-to-one among liberals and Democrats under 35, drew 25% of the vote from this demographic.