Sen. Amy Klobuchar will become the second moderate Democrat in as many days to end a bid for the presidency, bringing the primary matchup to face President Donald Trump into a clearer view on the eve of Super Tuesday.
The three-term Minnesota senator will reportedly announce she is ending her campaign and will travel to Dallas to endorse Joe Biden at a campaign stop for the former vice president. Both Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — two of the three moderate candidates, along with former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, competing with Biden for votes — dropped out ahead of Tuesday’s primaries, thinning out a race that started with more than a dozen candidates.
Klobuchar and Buttigieg both exited the race after lukewarm performances in South Carolina’s primary. Biden, fueled by support from African Americans, won 48.4% of the vote in Saturday’s primary, while Buttigieg (8.2%) and Klobuchar (3.2%) finished fourth and sixth, respectively. Billionaire Tom Steyer, who reportedly spent $18 million on television ads in the Palmetto State, was third with 11.3% vote and dropped out Saturday.
While 15 names will appear on the Democratic Party ballot for president in North Carolina on Tuesday — one of 14 states, along with American Samoa, that will cast their votes in the presidential primary on Super Tuesday — the field has dwindled significantly.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders remains the front-runner with 60 delegates to Biden’s 54. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — Sanders’ closest remaining rival on the left of the party — has eight delegates, while Bloomberg will, for the first time, see if the nearly half-billion dollars he has spent — Reuters reported Monday the billionaire had doled our $452 million, much of it on advertising — translate to votes in the primaries.
Buttigieg, who had totaled the third-most delegates with 26 before shuttering his campaign, is reportedly mulling over endorsing Biden. That seems likely, according to reports, though it probably won’t come until after Super Tuesday.
