Pete Buttigieg has officially ended his White House campaign. “The truth is the path has narrowed to a close for our candidacy if not for our cause,” the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told a home town crowd tonight.
Democratic presidential candidate and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks during a speech to supporters on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2020, in South Bend, Ind. Buttigieg, who rose from being the Indiana mayor to a barrier-breaking, top-tier candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, ended his campaign on Sunday.
The decision came just a day after one of Buttigieg’s leading rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, scored a resounding victory in South Carolina that sparked new pressure on the party’s moderate wing to coalesce behind Biden. Buttigieg, the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency, tried to make the case that his party thrived when it embraced candidates who offered generational change. But the 38-year-old Afghanistan war veteran ended up being more successful at winning older voters while Sanders, 78, captured the energy of younger ones.
Despite robust organizations in Iowa and New Hampshire and supporters who included an influx of former independents and Republicans, Buttigieg failed to overcome daunting questions about his ability to draw African American support key to the Democratic base. A Black Lives Matter group from South Bend released a statement saying it was “excited” that Buttigieg left the race. “We hope that he learned his lesson — that neoliberalism and anti-Black policies will no longer be tolerated,” the group wrote.
Buttigieg presented a starkly different figure on the debate stage than the other leading candidates — all septuagenarians — and drew admirers for his calm, reasoned demeanor and rhetorical skills that reflected his Harvard-trained, Rhodes scholar background but that some voters and operatives described as “robotic.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Pete Buttigieg to drop out of the Democratic presidential campaignPete Buttigieg has dropped out of the Democratic presidential race, ending the improbable and historic campaign of the former mayor of South Bend, Ind.
Read more »
Pete Buttigieg is ending his historic presidential campaignPete Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor, is dropping out of the presidential race, an aide says
Read more »
After rising from relative obscurity to become a viable White House candidate, Pete Buttigieg ends his campaignThe mayor of a mid-size Midwestern town rose from relative political obscurity to become a viable candidate for the White House.
Read more »
Pete Buttigieg to end 2020 White House bid: SourcesPete Buttigieg, who is expected to suspend his presidential bid, kicked off his campaign in his hometown in April 2019. 'My name is Pete Buttigieg, they call me 'Mayor Pete.' I am a proud son of South Bend, Indiana, and I'm running for President.'
Read more »