The former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana and the first openly gay Presidential candidate has stepped out of the presidential race. Buttigieg, who won the first Iowa primary, conceded that he wasn’t going to win, throwing his weight behind fellow moderate Joe Biden. The Democratic field of candidates has narrowed down even further. Shortly after Buttigieg fell off, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar also dropped out and announced that she’s backing the candidature of Joe Biden.
The two dropped out barely a day before Super Tuesday, a day where over 14 states vote in the primary. Despite this, even as Klobuchar and Buttigieg threw in the towel, Elizabeth Warren, another frailing candidate who has failed to win a single delegate so far, remained steadfast in the race.
Warren who failed to win even in her home state of Massachusetts has lagged behind two of the main front runners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Warren is considered by many political analysts as one of the two far-left candidates in the party along with front runner Sanders. According to many analysts, the dropping out of Buttigieg and Klobuchar will be a huge stumbling block for Sanders.
The United States senator from Vermont had started to cement his status as a front runner after claiming crucial victories in New Hampshire and Nevada. But Biden did make a comeback ahead of Tuesday, winning South Carolina by a huge margin. The former vice president used the victory to galvanize his support base and did very well on Super Tuesday.
Biden won all the southern states and was also able to bag a crucial victory in Texas, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. On the other hand, Bernie Sanders took the all-important state of California, his home state of Vermont, and most notably Colorado. There were fears among the democratic establishment that Sanders had started to build ahead of the stream.
Many also feared that if he were to win the Democratic nomination, it would have been very difficult for him to beat current president Donald Trump. Political analysts believe that the dropping out of Buttigieg and Klobuchar, two moderates in the party, was designed to slow down Sanders and it seems like the strategy has worked.
After Super Tuesday, Joe Biden had completed his comeback. His crucial wins in the South and Texas surged the former Vice President to the top of the delegates count so far, paving the way for a clear showdown over the coming months. It's not clear yet if Warren will drop out.
By any standards, it has been a dismal campaign by the Senator from Massachusetts. With the moderate wing of the Democratic party gaining momentum, it would be a huge boost for Sanders if Warren was to drop out and endorse Sanders' candidacy.
Biden was also able to secure support from Beto O’Rourke, another candidate who dropped earlier in the race. Despite this, the race for the Democratic ticket now seems to be a two-horse race and based on Super Tuesday results, it seems like Biden has the momentum.
