And Then There Were Four*
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The once-promising campaigns of Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar didn’t make it to Super Tuesday. What happens now?
In the past few days, in the aftermath of Biden’s big win in South Carolina and the surge of Sen. Bernie Sanders, billionaire Tom Steyer and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg have both announced the end of their respective campaigns.
Today, Sen. Amy Klobuchar has joined them, announcing the end of her efforts to secure the Democratic nomination and her subsequent endorsement of Joe Biden.
Andrew Yang. Sen. Kamala Harris. Sen. Cory Booker. Beto O’Rourke. Julian Castro. Michael Bennett. Marianne Williamson.
The list of Democrats running for president in 2020 was always longer than it ought to have been. It is still much longer than it ought to be, according to certain Democrats who think other Democrats should drop out of the race, if only to stop Bernie Sanders.
It is even longer than four, in fact. Though no one is much counting Rep. Tulsi Gabbard* anymore.
That former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive front-runner at the outset of the race, has been seen as a relatively weak candidate from the beginning is partially responsible. Smart, ambitious people like Pete Buttigieg and Michael Bennett, and rich people like Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, wouldn’t have considered a run without a clear path to the nomination.
But seeing no such path, Democrats have dropped out of the race one by one. Sometimes, the news has been greeted with relief; other times with disappointment.
At no point in the race has it looked like a runaway for anyone. Not even now even as the forward surge of the Bernie Sanders campaign has establishment Democrats in an absolute panic.
After all, the Buttigieg campaign looked good after a- mostly- win in Iowa. Week before last, Buttigieg was amassing a respectable collection of delegates and was even leading for a time.
This week, support from minority voting communities failed to materialize for Buttigieg. And now he is out.
This race has always seemed like anyone’s race, various candidates have surged on a a good debate performance or strong fundraising quarter only to wane…
