Pete Buttigieg announced the suspension of his presidential campaign on Sunday night in South Bend, Indiana
Pete Buttigieg offered an uplifting message to his supporters as he announced the suspension of his presidential campaign on Sunday night in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana.
The impromptu event came hours after reports emerged that Buttigieg would be dropping out of the race following a disappointing fourth-place finish in the South Carolina primary.
The former South Bend mayor was met with cheers of ‘We love you!’ and ‘Mayor Pete’ chants as he took the stage following an emotional introduction by his husband Chasten.
‘It’s so good to be in South Bend. Sometimes the longest way around really is the shortest way home. Here we are,’ Buttigieg told the crowd.
‘We got into this race for a reason. We got into this race in order to defeat the current president and in order to usher in a new kind of politics.
‘And that meant guiding our campaign by the values we like to call the rules of the road. One of those values is truth. And today is a moment of truth.
‘After a year of going everywhere, meeting everyone, defying every expectation, seeking every vote, the truth is that the path has narrowed to a close. For our candidacy if not for our cause.
‘We have a responsibility to consider the effect of remaining in this race any further. Our goal has always been to help unify Americans to defeat Donald Trump and to win the era for our values.
‘And so we must recognize that at this point in the race the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals is to step aside and help bring our party and our country together.
‘So tonight I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency. I will no longer seek to be the 2020 democratic nominee for president.
‘But I will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new Democratic president come January.’
The former South Bend mayor was met with cheers of ‘We love you!’ and ‘Mayor Pete’ chants as he took the stage
‘Tonight I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency,’ Buttigieg told the cheering crowd. ‘I will no longer seek to be the 2020 democratic nominee for president. But I will do everything in my power to ensure that we have a new Democratic president come January’
Buttigieg went on to urge his supporters to ‘continue in the cause of ensuring that we bring change to the White House and working to win the absolutely critical ballot races playing out across the country this year’.
‘There is simply too much at stake to retreat to the sidelines at a time like this,’ he said.
‘And as this contest gives way to the season of weekly elections and delegate math, it is more important than ever that we hold to what this is actually all about, politics is not about the horse race.
‘It’s not about the debate stage or a precinct count in a spreadsheet. It is about real people’s lives. It is about our paychecks, our families, our futures.
‘We can and must put the everyday lives of Americans who have been overlooked for so long back at the center of our politics.’
He then thanked all of the people who supported his bid for the White House, including his campaign staff, his family and his fans.
‘I know that as this campaign ends, there comes disappointment that we won’t continue,’ Buttigieg said.
‘But I hope that everyone who has been part of this in any way knows that the campaign that you have built and the community that you have created is only the beginning of the change that we are going to make together.’
‘Today more than ever politics matters because leaders can call out either what is best in us or what is worst in us, can draw us either to our better or to our worst selves. Politics at its worst is ugly, but at its best politics can lift us up. It is not just policymaking, it is moral, it is soulcraft. That is why we are in this.’
Buttigieg’s husband Chasten (left) opened Sunday’s speech with heartfelt remarks about his husband
The pair shared an emotional embrace before Buttigieg addressed the crowd with his big announcement
Buttigieg described how hours earlier he visited Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ civil rights march and said he was ‘humbled to walk in the symbolic and literal shadows of heroes who 55 years ago made America more of a democracy than it had ever been by their blood and by their courage’.
‘Seeing those moral giants made me ask what we might achieve in the years now at hand, how we might live up to the greatest moral traditions of political change in this country,’ he said.
‘It made me wonder how the 2020s will be remembered when I am an old man. I firmly believe that in these years in our time we can and will make American life and politics not just more wise and more prosperous but more equitable and more just and more decent.
‘Think of how proud we could be of our time if we really did act so that no one has to take to the streets in America for a decent wage because one job is enough in the United States of America, whether you went to college or not.
‘Imagine how proud we would be to be the generation that saw the day when your race has no bearing on your health or your wealth or your relationship with law enforcement in the United States.
‘What if we could be the ones to deliver the day when our teachers are honored a little more like soldiers and paid a little more like doctors.
‘What if we were the ones who rallied this nation to see to it that climate would be no barrier to our children’s opportunities in life.
‘The chance to do that is in our hands. That is the hope in our hearts. That is the fire in our bellies. That is the future we believe in. A country that really does empower every American to thrive and a future where everyone belongs. Thank you for sharing that vision, thank you for helping us spread that hope. Thank you so much. Let’s move on together.’
Buttigieg planned to withdraw hours after Democratic candidates commemorated the 55th anniversary of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ civil rights march in Selma, Alabama. He is seen crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge alongside Rev Al Sharpton (right)
Buttigieg (left) met with former President Jimmy Carter (center) in Plains, Georgia, earlier on Sunday. The pair are pictured with the candidate’s husband Chasten Buttigieg (second right) and former first lady Rosalynn Carter (right) at Buffalo Cafe
An Afghanistan war veteran and the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency, Buttigieg rose to the field’s top tier as an eloquent, disciplined speaker with a promise to unite Democrats, independents, and moderate Republican voters.
His campaign picked up momentum early last month after a narrow win in the Iowa caucuses and a strong second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary.
But he struggled as the race moved to more diverse states, less dependent on college-educated voters – culminating in a harsh loss to fellow moderate Joe Biden in Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
Buttigieg had been critical of Biden, charging that the 77-year-old lifelong politician was out of step with today’s politics.
But his criticism had shifted in recent days more toward front-runner Bernie Sanders, a polarizing progressive who was benefiting from the sheer number of candidates dividing up the moderate vote.
President Donald Trump reacted to the news of Buttigieg’s departure from the race on Twitter
Buttigieg had tried to make the case that his party thrived when it embraced candidates who offered generational change – but ended up being more successful at winning older voters while 78-year-old Sanders captured the energy of younger ones.
His departure from the race reflects the growing pressuring among more moderate Democrats to consolidate in an effort to blunt the rise of Sanders, who Buttigieg said was too liberal to be elected.
It came just two days before the 14-state Super Tuesday nominating contests that will offer the biggest electoral prize so far in the Democratic race to pick a candidate to take on Republican President Donald Trump in November’s election.
Trump reacted to the news by tweeting: ‘Pete Buttigieg is OUT. All of his SuperTuesday votes will go to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play – NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!’
Buttigieg did not endorse any of the remaining candidates during his Sunday speech, but sources say he and former vice president Joe Biden traded voicemails after the news broke.
Buttigieg rose to the field’s top tier as an eloquent, disciplined speaker with a promise to unite Democrats, independents, and moderate Republican voters – but failed to secure enough wins in early states to maintain his White House bid
CNN obtained video of Buttigieg explaining his unexpected trip back to South Bend on Sunday
Insiders say Biden (pictured on Sunday) and Buttigieg have been trying to reach each other by phone since news of the latter candidate’s departure broke
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.
He earned just three percent of the nonwhite vote in South Carolina’s Saturday primary, according to AP VoteCast, a a wide-ranging survey of the electorate.
As mayor of a city that is 25 percent black, Buttigieg faced criticism for firing the first African American police chief in the history of South Bend and for his handling of the case of a white police officer who fatally shot an armed black man in June.
After his unexpected rise to contention in Iowa and New Hampshire last fall, Buttigieg became the target of Massachusetts Sen Elizabeth Warren for the high-dollar fundraisers he was hosting, notably one in a wine cave in California.
Minnesota Sen Amy Klobuchar also went at Buttigieg in the months before the caucuses for lacking national experience.
She noted that he had lost his only statewide race as a candidate for Indiana treasurer in 2010, while she had won three statewide terms in Minnesota in part by carrying Republican-heavy regions.
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’.
He had modeled his campaign somewhat on that of former President Barack Obama, who won the 2008 Iowa caucuses largely based on a message of unity and by drawing in a healthy bloc of first-time caucus participants, often the key in a crowded, high-turnout contest.
Buttigieg meets with constituents at the Buffalo Cafe in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday
The former mayor was at the cafe to talk with former President Jimmy Carter
Buttigieg planned to withdraw hours after Democratic candidates commemorated a landmark civil rights march in Alabama on Sunday.
Some worshippers at the African-American church where the event was held turned their backs on his presidential rival Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire who will first appear on ballots on Tuesday after skipping the first four contests.
Bloomberg, a former New York mayor, received a chilly reception at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma after the pastor, the Rev Leodis Strong, told the gathering the billionaire businessman initially had turned down the invitation to speak.
‘I was hurt, I was disappointed,’ Strong said as Bloomberg looked on stonily. ‘I think it’s important that he came, and it shows a willingness on his part to change.’
About 10 people in the small church with a couple hundred in attendance stood up and turned their backs on Bloomberg as he spoke about racial inequality.
Biden and Bloomberg are trying to present themselves as the party’s best choice to take on Trump, saying Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is too far to the left to win the general election.
Black voters are a key Democratic constituency, and Bloomberg has been criticized for supporting the use of a policing practice called stop and frisk in New York City that encouraged police to stop and search pedestrians and disproportionately affected blacks and Latinos.
‘It’s just an insult for him to come here. It’s the disrespect for the legacy of this place,’ Lisa Brown, who traveled to Selma from Los Angeles, told Reuters after turning her back to Bloomberg.
She said the idea to protest Bloomberg’s remarks had circulated but that she stood as an individual, not an organized group.
The quiet protest suggests Bloomberg faces an uphill climb with some African-American voters, who carried Biden to a resounding victory in South Carolina.
Biden praised his South Carolina success in an interview with Fox News on Sunday (pictured)
Biden, who was vice president to the first black US president, Barack Obama, was clearly the favorite at the Selma church. He was seated by the pastor, facing the pews where Bloomberg sat, and got a glowing introduction from US Representative Terri Sewell, a black Alabama lawmaker.
‘He has earned the right to be in this pulpit and to address you now,’ Sewell told the crowd.
The candidates were in Selma to mark the 55th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday’, when civil rights marchers were beaten by state troopers and local police while crossing a bridge.
Some Democratic Party officials expressed concerns last week about Sanders’ early surge, worrying that his aggressive policy priorities including establishing a mandatory government-run healthcare system could turn off moderate voters badly needed to defend competitive seats in Congress.
‘I think the Democratic Party is looking for a Democrat – not a socialist, not a former Republican, a Democrat – to be their nominee,’ Biden told Fox News Sunday.
Biden’s reference to a former Republican appears to have been aimed at Bloomberg, who switched parties multiple times in his career.
Sanders attacked Biden for taking contributions from political organizations called Super PACs and billionaires, at what he said was the expense of working-class, middle-class and low-income people.
‘I don’t go to rich people’s homes like Joe Biden,’ Sanders said on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Biden lags Sanders in fundraising and organization in Super Tuesday states and beyond.
Sanders planned to campaign on Sunday in heavily Democratic California, where he leads opinion polls.
The Sanders campaign said overnight it raised $46.5million from more than 2.2 million donations in February, a huge sum dwarfing what any other Democratic candidate raised last year in any three-month period.
Bloomberg continues to spend. He purchased three minutes of commercial air time during on broadcast networks CBS and NBC on Sunday evening to address the coronavirus outbreak.
WHO ARE THE 6 DEMOCRATS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2020?
JOE BIDEN
Age on Inauguration Day 2021: 78
Entered race: April 25, 2019
Career: No current role. A University of Delaware and Syracuse Law graduate, he was first elected to Newcastle City Council in 1969, then won upset election to Senate in 1972, aged 29. Was talked out of quitting before being sworn in when his wife and daughter died in a car crash and served total of six terms. Chaired Judiciary Committee’s notorious Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Ran for president in 1988, pulled out after plagiarism scandal, ran again in 2008, withdrew after placing fifth in the Iowa Caucuses. Tapped by Obama as his running mate and served two terms as vice president. Contemplated third run in 2016 but decided against it after his son died of brain cancer.
Family: Eldest of four siblings born to Joe Biden Sr. and Catherine Finnegan. First wife Neilia Hunter and their one-year-old daughter Naomi died in car crash which their two sons, Joseph ‘Beau’ and Robert Hunter survived. Married Jill Jacobs in 1976, with whom he has daughter Ashley. Beau died of brain cancer in 2015. Hunter’s marriage to Kathleen Buhle, with whom he has three children, ended in 2016 when it emerged Hunter was in a relationship with Beau’s widow Hallie, mother of their two children. Hunter admitted cocaine use; his estranged wife accused him of blowing their savings on drugs and prostitutes
Religion: Catholic
Views on key issues: Ultra-moderate who will emphasize bipartisan record. Will come under fire over record, having voted: to stop desegregation bussing in 1975; to overturn Roe v Wade in 1981; for now controversial 1994 Violent Crime Act; for 2003 Iraq War; and for banking deregulation. Says he is ‘most progressive’ Democrat. New positions include free college, tax reform, $15 minimum wage. No public position yet on Green New Deal and healthcare. Pro-gun control. Has already apologized to women who say he touched them inappropriately
Would make history as: Oldest person elected president
Slogan: Our Best Days Still Lie Ahead
MIKE BLOOMBERG
Age on Inauguration Day: 78
Entered race: November 24, 2019
Career: Currently multi-billionaire CEO of Bloomberg PL, the financial information firm he founded in 1981 and which remains a private company. Educated at Johns Hopkins and Harvard, he became a Wall Street trader at investment bank Salomon Brothers and was laid off in 1981, walking away with $10m in stock which he used to set up his own financial information firm, now one of the world’s largest. Three times mayor of New York 2002 to 2013, running first as Republican then as independent; had to get term limits suspended for final term. Once flirted with running for mayor of London where he has a home; holds an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth. Has spent large amounts on philanthropy in line with his political views as well as on political campaigns
Family: Born in Brookline, MA, to first-generation Jewish immigrant parents whose own parents had fled Russia. Divorced wife of 18 years, Susan Brown-Meyer, in 1993; former couple have daughters Emma, who has a son with her former boyfriend, and Georgina, who has daughter Zelda with her husband Chris Fissora. The child has a portmanteau surname, Frissberg. Partner since 2000 is Diana Taylor, former New York state banking commissioner, 13 years his junior
Religion: Jewish
Views on key issues: Self-professed fiscal conservative, although painted as a Democratic moderate by other conservative groups. Opposed to Medicare for all. Social progressive who backed gay marriage early, but has flip-flopped on marijuana legalization, most recently opposing it.. Wants firm action on climate change. Fiercely in favor of gun control. As New York mayor banned smoking in public places and tried to outlaw large sugary drinks. Backs increased immigration. Apologized for his stop-and-frisk policing strategy as mayor
Would make history as: Oldest person elected president; first Jewish president; richest president ever; first New York mayor to become president
Slogan: Fighting For Our Future
TULSI GABBARD
Age on Inauguration Day: 39
Entered race: Still to formally file any papers but said she would run on January 11 2019
Career: Currently Hawaii congresswoman. Born on American Samoa, a territory. Raised largely in Hawaii, she co-founded an environmental non-profit with her father as a teenager and was elected to the State Legislature aged 21, its youngest member in history. Enlisted in the National Guard and served two tours, one in Iraq 2004-2006, then as an officer in Kuwait in 2009. Ran for Honolulu City Council in 2011, and House of Representatives in 2012
Family: Married to her second husband, Abraham Williams, a cinematographer since 2015. First marriage to childhood sweetheart Eduardo Tamayo in 2002 ended in 2006. Father Mike Gabbard is a Democratic Hawaii state senator, mother Carol Porter runs a non-profit.
Religion: Hindu
Views on key issues: Has apologized for anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage views; wants marijuana federally legalized; opposed to most U.S. foreign interventions; backs $15 minimum wage and universal health care; was the second elected Democrat to meet Trump after his 2016 victory
Would make history as: First female, Hindu and Samoan-American president; youngest president ever
Slogan: Lead with Love
AMY KLOBUCHAR
Age on Inauguration Day: 60
Entered race: Announced candidacy February 10, 2019 at snow-drenched rally in her native Minneapolis
Career: Currently Minnesota senator. Yale and University of Chicago law graduate who became a corporate lawyer. First ran unsuccessfully for office in 1994 as Hennepin, MI, county attorney, and won same race in 1998, then in 2002, without opposition. Ran for Senate in 2006 and won 58-38; re-elected in 2012 and 2018
Family: Married to John Bessler, law professor at University of Baltimore and expert on capital punishment. Daughter Abigail Bessler, 23, works fora Democratic member of New York City council. Father Jim, 90, was a veteran newspaper columnist who has written a memoir of how his alcoholism hurt his family; mom Rose is a retired grade school teacher
Religion: Congregationalist (United Church of Christ)
Views on key issues: Seen as a mainstream liberal: says she wants ‘universal health care’ but has not spelled out how; pro-gun control; pro-choice; backs $15 minimum wage; no public statements on federal marijuana legalization; has backed pro-Israel law banning the ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions’ movement; spoke out against abolishing ICE
Would make history as: First female president
Slogan: Let’s Get To Work
BERNIE SANDERS
Age on Inauguration Day: 79
Entered race: Sources said on January 25, 2019, that he would form exploratory committee. Officially announced February 19
Career: Currently Vermont senator. Student civil rights and anti-Vietnam activist who moved to Vermont and worked as a carpenter and radical film-maker. Serial failed political candidate in the 1970s, he ran as a socialist for mayor of Burlington in 1980 and served two terms ending in 1989, and win a seat in Congress as an independent in 1990. Ran for Senate in 2006 elections as an independent with Democratic endorsement and won third term in 2018. Challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016 but lost. Campaign has since been hit by allegations of sexual harassment – for which he has apologized – and criticized for its ‘Bernie bro’ culture
Family: Born to a Jewish immigrant father and the daughter of Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York. First marriage to college sweetheart Deborah Shiling Messing in 1964 ended in divorce in 1966; had son Levi in 1969 with then girlfriend Susan Cambell Mott. Married Jone O’Meara in 1988 and considers her three children, all adults, his own. The couple have seven grandchildren. His older brother Larry is a former Green Party councilor in Oxfordshire, England.
Religion: Secular Jewish
Views on key issues: Openly socialist and standard bearer for the Democratic party’s left-turn. Wants federal $15 minimum wage; banks broken up; union membership encouraged; free college tuition; universal health care; re-distributive taxation; he opposed Iraq War and also U.S. leading the fight against ISIS and wants troops largely out of Afghanistan and the Middle East
Would make history as: Oldest person elected president; first Jewish president
Slogan: Not me. Us.
ELIZABETH WARREN
Age on Inauguration Day: 71
Entered race: Set up exploratory committee December 31, 2018
Career: Currently Massachusetts senator. Law lecturer and academic who became an expert on bankruptcy law and tenured Harvard professor. Ran for Senate and won in 2012, defeating sitting Republican Scott Brown, held it in 2018 60% to 36%. Was short-listed to be Hillary’s running mate and campaigned hard for her in 2016
Family: Twice-married mother of two and grandmother of three. First husband and father of her children was her high-school sweetheart. Second husband Bruce Mann is Harvard law professor. Daughter Amelia Tyagi and son Alex Warren have both been involved in her campaigns. Has controversially claimed Native American roots; DNA test suggested she is as little as 1,064th Native American
Religion: Raised Methodist, now described as Christian with no fixed church
Views on key issues: Was a registered Republican who voted for the party but registered as a Democrat in 1996. Pro: higher taxes on rich; banking regulation; Dream Act path to citizenship for ‘dreamers’; abortion and gay rights; campaign finance restrictions; and expansion of public provision of healthcare – although still to spell out exactly how that would happen. Against: U.S. presence in Afghanistan and Syria; liberalization of gambling
Would make history as: First female president
Slogan: Warren Has A Plan For That
AND THE 22 WHO HAVE WITHDRAWN
MICHAEL BENNET, Colorado senator
- Entered race: May 2, 2019
- Quit: February 12, 2019, evening of New Hampshire primary
CORY BOOKER, New Jersey Senator
- Entered race: February 1, 2019
- Quit: January 13, 2020
STEVE BULLOCK, Montana governor
- Entered race: May 14, 2019
- Quit: December 2, 2019
PETE BUTTIGIEG, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana
Entered race: January 23, 2019
Quit: March 1, 2020, day after South Carolina primary
JULIÁN CASTRO, former Housing Secretary
- Entered race: January 18, 2019
- Quit: January 2, 2020
BILL DE BLASIO, New York City mayor
- Entered race: May 16, 2019
- Quit: September 20, 2020
JOHN DELANEY, former Maryland Congressman
- Entered race: July 8, 2017
- Quit: January 31, 2019
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York senator
- Entered race: January 16, 2019
- Quit: August 28, 2019
MIKE GRAVEL, Former Alaska governor
- Entered race: April 2,2019
- Quit: August 2, 2019
KAMALA HARRIS,California senator
- Entered race: January 21, 2019
- Quit: December 3, 2019
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Former Colorado governor
- Entered race: March 4, 2019
- Quit: August 15, 2019
JAY INSLEE, Washington governor
- Entered race: March 1, 2019
- Quit: August 21, 2019
WAYNE MESSAM, mayor of Miramar, Florida
- Entered race: March 28, 2019
- Quit: November 20, 2019
SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts congressman
- Entered race: April 22,2019
- Quit: August 23, 2019
RICHARD OJEDA, former West Virginia state senator
- Entered race: November 12, 2018
- Quit: January 25, 2019
BETO O’ROURKE, former Texas congressman
- Entered race: March 14, 2019
- Quit: November 1, 2019
DEVAL PATRICK, former Massachusetts governor
- Entered race: November 13, 2019
- Quit: February 13, 2019, morning after New Hampshire primary
TIM RYAN, Ohio congressman
- Entered race: April 4, 2019
- Quit: October 24, 2019
JOE SESTAK, former Pennsylvania congressman
- Entered race: June 23, 2019
- Quit: December 1, 2019
TOM STEYER, billionaire activist
- Entered race: July 9, 2019
- Quit: February 29, 2020
ERIC SWALWELL, California congressman
- Entered race: April 8, 2019
- Quit: July 8, 2019
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, author
- Entered race: November 15, 2018
- Quit: January 10, 2020
ANDREW YANG, entrepreneur
- Entered race: November 6, 2018
- Quit: February 12, 2019, evening of New Hampshire primary