Klobuchar is ending her presidential bid, will endorse Biden

The Minnesota senator joins Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer in leaving the race

Democratic presidential candidate Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar waves to her supporters after speaking during her presidential campaign rally Monday in Salt Lake City. Klobuchar is ending her campaign for president and will endores former Vice President Joe Biden. (Steve Griffin / The Deseret News via AP)

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.

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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.