Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) will drop out of the presidential race and endorse Joe Biden, according to several news reports.
Klobuchar’s announcement came less than 24 hours after another moderate, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, dropped out of the race. Buttigieg is also expected to endorse Biden.
“The Klobuchar campaign confirms the senator is flying to Dallas to join Vice President Biden at his rally tonight where she will suspend her campaign and endorse the vice president,” Carlie Waibel, the Klobuchar campaign press secretary, confirmed to Fox News.
The pair of dropouts and endorsement represent a turning point in the race for Biden, who has been vying for a more centrist lane than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). It also demonstrates a coalescing of the more moderate wing of the Democratic party to slow down Sanders, whose odds of winning the nomination were growing in the last few weeks.
Buttigieg is planning to announce his endorsement for Biden, which comes just minutes after Klobuchar’s team confirmed reports she would head to Biden’s campaign event and endorse him.
“We need leadership to heal a divided nation, not drive us further apart. We need a broad-based agenda that can truly deliver for the American people, not one that gets lost in ideology,” Buttigieg said in a speech on Sunday. “I urge everyone who supported me to continue in the cause of ensuring that we bring change to the White House and working to win the absolutely critical down ballot races playing out across the country this year.”
That leaves just four candidates with a chance at the nomination: Sanders, Warren, Biden and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is also still in the face.
Bloomberg took the unusual step of foregoing early states and dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Super Tuesday contests. On Tuesday, his campaign will find out if that novel approach pays off.
News of the endorsements from Buttigieg and Klobuchar elicited a quick response from Sanders supporters and surrogates, who claim this was the latest move from the Democratic establishment to try to stop his candidacy.
I don't know about you, but I'd feel ripped off and betrayed if I had donated my hard-earned money to Klobuchar and Buttigieg just to have them drop out early to help Biden try to win.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) March 2, 2020
https://twitter.com/fshakir/status/1234552781857525763
Sanders responded to the news by congratulating both Klobuchar and Buttigieg on Twitter and imploring their supporters to join him in a fight to change America.
