Pete Buttigieg is out – along with many other candidates on California’s presidential ballot
The number of viable candidates on California’s presidential ballot shrunk Sunday afternoon as Pete Buttigieg planned to suspend his campaign just two days before Super Tuesday.
His decision followed a strong performance by Joe Biden in South Carolina and dwindling enthusiasm for Buttigieg in key states that will vote on Tuesday.
Buttigieg made his announcement Sunday evening in South Bend, Indiana — the city of about 100,000 people that twice elected him mayor.
“Today is a moment of truth.....” he said. “Our goal has always been to help unify Americans to defeat Donald Trump and to win the era for our values. And so we must recognize that at this point in the race the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals is to step aside.”
Buttigieg left his mark in 2020 by capturing a narrow win over Sanders in Iowa.
He also made history by becoming the first openly gay presidential candidate of a major party to earn delegates. He presently has 26 delegates and can transfer them to a candidate of his choosing in the event of a contested summer convention hosted by the Democratic National Committee.
Buttigieg visited California more than any other presidential candidate, with 27 events and 47 fundraisers.
But a Suffolk University/USA Today poll released Sunday afternoon showed Buttigieg with just 7 percent support in California. He would need 15 percent statewide or in a given congressional district to be eligible for pledged delegates.
He becomes the ninth Democrat to drop out of the race but remain on California’s ballot.
It’s unclear how many of the 1.4 million Democrats who have already cast their mail-in ballots have already voted for him. California billionaire Tom Steyer bowed out of the 2020 presidential race on Saturday following a disappointing showing in South Carolina. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang also exited the race after early voting began in California on Feb. 3.
Joe Sestak exited the presidential race last year before California’s Dec. 26 withdrawal deadline but didn’t submit forms with the Secretary of State’s Office to get his name removed. John Delaney, Marianne Williamson, Cory Booker, Michael Bennet and Deval Patrick all dropped out after the deadline.
Bernie Sanders has consistently polled at the top of the pack in California, leaving Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg fighting to cross that 15 percent local or statewide threshold.
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 4:07 PM.