Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is expected to announce the end of his presidential campaign, according to multiple reports on Sunday. The candidate's expected announcement comes on the heels of the South Carolina primary where the candidate garnered a measly eight percent of the vote, and an even paltrier three percent of the Black vote, according to exit polls. Buttigieg appeared unable to win over members of the Black community, botching outreach efforts early on in his campaign.
With Super Tuesday just days away, the Buttigieg campaign had earlier released a memo stating the new focus of the campaign was to simply reach the viability threshold in state primaries, 15 percent, needed in order to be awarded state delegates. "The key to winning is to minimize Sanders' margins on Super Tuesday and rack up delegates in the following contests as the field winnows," a campaign memo stated.
Buttigieg, 38, started strong in Iowa, winning the first-in-the-nation state to pick a Democratic candidate for president. But any bounce Buttigieg may have received from that win was cushioned by the Democratic Party's incompetent handling of the official results, taking weeks to reach a determination. Trending downward from there, Buttigieg finished second in New Hampshire, came in third in Nevada and finished fourth in South Carolina.
The candidate's departure from the race increases the likelihood that Democratic voters can begin to coalesce around a candidate that can challenge the far-left socialism of Bernie Sanders. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and billionaire Michael Bloomberg have all criticized Bernie's socialist agenda, although Warren' s policies seem every bit as scary.
On Twitter, President Trump reacted to the news, predicting Buttigieg's Super Tuesday votes will now go to Joe Biden. Trump called Buttigieg's withdrawal the "beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play."
Pete Buttigieg is OUT. All of his SuperTuesday votes will go to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play - NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 1, 2020
On Tuesday, Mar. 3rd, more than a third of state delegates are up for grabs as 14 states hold primaries to pick a nominee for president.