Hold your ballots; Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren have suspended their presidential runs.
Buttigieg and Klobuchar announced they were leaving the race in close proximity to one another, in an apparent bid to coalesce behind Joe Biden, who won the South Carolina primary last Saturday, leading Sanders by 20 points.
Both campaign’s suspending their operations came as a surprise, as both were expected to continue until at least Super Tuesday. Klobuchar in particular was expected to give Sanders a run for his money in her home state of Minnesota.
Buttigieg lost steam after winning Iowa and coming in second in New Hampshire. His poor standing with non-white voters led to 3rd and 4th place finishes respectively in Nevada and South Carolina.
Both Klobuchar and Buttigieg joined Biden in a campaign rally last monday, where they announced they were suspending their campaigns and endorsing Biden.
A wave of endorsements for Biden came afterwards, such as former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke and John Brennan, former head of the CIA.
The moderate wing of the party coalescing behind Biden combined with his name recognition and positive media coverage overall proved fruitful; Biden won 10 out of the 14 states up for grabs on Super Tuesday.
Biden was largely expected to win most southern states, but also bagged a surprise win in Massachusetts, where Warren split the progressive vote, stopping Sanders from winning Warren’s home state.
Bloomberg’s electoral experiment also failed after Super Tuesday. The former New York City mayor’s campaign failed to resonate with voters, resulting in measly returns across the map, winning only the American Samoa primary for 6 delegates.
Bloomberg promptly endorsed Biden after dropping out.
Warren also supended her campaign on Thursday. She never placed higher than 3rd in any of the first 18 states.
It is not immediately clear if Warren will hold her endorsement (indefinitely or otherwise) or not.
Washington state votes on Mar. 10, along with Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and North Dakota.
The latest poll (Feb. 26) coming out of Washington by Elway Research has Sanders at 21 percent, leading Bloomberg by 6 points. However, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Warren dropping out and the latest Super Tuesday results are bound to change things.
