( Reuters) – Pete Buttigieg left of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday, stating he no longer saw a possibility of winning, the day after fellow moderate Joe Biden won a huge victory in South Carolina.
The relocation shook up the Democratic contest to pick a candidate to handle Republican President Donald Trump in November’s election and came two days prior to the 14- state Super Tuesday choosing contests that will offer the biggest electoral prize up until now.
Buttigieg, a 38- year-old previous mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who got early momentum after he narrowly won the Iowa caucuses last month and finished a close 2nd in New Hampshire, had sought to unite Democrats, independents and moderate Republican citizens. He ended up a remote third in Nevada and fourth in South Carolina.
” Today is a decisive moment … the truth is that the path has actually narrowed to a close for our candidateship if not for our cause,” Buttigieg told fans in South Bend on Sunday night. “Our objective has always been to combine Americans to assist defeat Donald Trump and to win the era for our values.”
His departure leaves six competitors in the Democratic presidential race, which when had more than 20 candidates. An advisor told Reuters that Buttigieg was leaving to prevent helping the odds of front-runner Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist.
” Pete was not going to play the role of spoiler,” stated the adviser, who spoke on condition of privacy. “Could he have went through Super Tuesday and beyond? Sure. However this was not a vanity exercise.”
Buttigieg and Biden tried to talk by telephone on Sunday however did not connect, according to a Buttigieg adviser.
Billionaire ecologist Tom Steyer abandoned his bid after finishing third in So