“Mayor Pete” Buttigieg dropped out of the Democratic nomination race Sunday afternoon, after meeting with former President Jimmy Carter, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar quickly followed suit on Monday, a day before her state votes in Super Tuesday primaries. Michael Bloomberg dropped out on Wednesday getting winning almost no delegates in the voting. All three formally endorsed Biden.
Inability to attract black voters were major weaknesses of all three candidates’ campaigns. Buttigieg’s and Klobuchar’s poor showings in Saturday’s South Carolina primary highlighted their inability to attract black voters; Klobuchar canceled a Monday rally at which black protesters showed up. She has been embroiled in controversy, stemming from her prosecutor days, over the allegedly wrongful conviction of a young black man. Bloomberg suffered from, among other things, residual resentment of his “stop and frisk” policing policies when he was New York City mayor.
Elizabeth Warren fared poorly on Super Tuesday, even losing her home state of Massachusetts to Biden, but had made no formal announcement as of Wednesday morning. She was reported last weekend to be assessing whether her candicacy has a path forward, and it doesn’t look like it. She trails badly in delegates, and appears to have no chance of winning the nomination.
Black voters rallied behind Biden on Super Tuesday, helping him sweep the South. He also won heavily among older white voters, while Sanders not surprisingly got the lion’s share of under-45 voters. His supporters tend to be young and white or Hispanic. Black voters also are a weak spot for Sanders.
The Democratic race is now shaping up as a Biden-Sanders contest, with overtones of a “Stop Sanders” movement coalescing behind Biden.
Meanwhile, Fox polls conducted last week and reported on the RealClearPolitics website gave Biden a 9-point lead over Trump, Sanders an 8-point lead over Trump, and Democrats a roughly 8-point lead in generic congressional matchups. One must be cautious about reading too much into polls, this far away from the election, but it does appear that Republicans aren’t very popular.
Photo: Pete Buttigieg met with Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter Sunday, then dropped out of the Democratic nomination race.