Not only is Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar ending her campaign, but she also intends to immediately throw her support behind former vice president Joe Biden. The consolidation of the “not-Bernie” vote has begun, and with three candidates dropping in the last 48 hours, the stage is set for a Super Tuesday battle between Sen. Bernie Sanders, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Biden. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is still in the mix, and whether she’ll improve as a result of her competitors exiting the race remains to be seen.
Biden is wasting no time in sweeping up the straggling support from Klobuchar, the two will be appearing together at a rally tonight in Texas before Super Tuesday voting tomorrow:
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who entered the Democratic presidential race with an appeal to moderate voters and offered herself as a candidate who could win in Midwestern swing states, has decided to quit the race and endorse a rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to a person close to Ms. Klobuchar.
Ms. Klobuchar will appear with Mr. Biden at his rally in Dallas Monday night. The decision comes one day after former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., departed the race, and after weeks of Democratic Party hand-wringing about a crowded field of moderate candidates splitting a finite field of centrist votes, allowing Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to march forward unopposed among progressives and amass delegates.
Biden and Klobuchar were fairly close on most issues. Her endorsement is a natural progression of her arguments on the debate stage that running too far left would damage the party in the general election against Donald Trump.
That leaves a chunk of voters from Buttigieg and now Klobuchar, the majority of which should naturally gravitate toward Biden, but could also benefit some to Warren as well, and possibly Bernie. Then there’s Mike Bloomberg, where does he fit in the mix?
With less than 24 hours before voting begins in several states, we won’t be getting any meaningful poll numbers so the results will be exciting to watch as the trajectory of the race takes place based on the events which transpired in the short time between South Carolina and the dozen or so Super Tuesday states on March 3.
What we’re witnessing is a last-ditch effort by the establishment and less moderate candidates to try and derail Bernie Sanders from an unimpeded march to the convention floor. Whether Biden or Sanders or anyone else, for that matter, can get a majority of the needed delegates in the first round becomes more questionable depending on what happens Tuesday. If Biden ends up taking Texas, and some southern states and Sanders takes California and the northeast, the primary will become much more protracted.
Bloomberg isn’t likely to outright win any states on Tuesday, though he could collect some delegates which will at least give him a voice should the contest wind up in a brokered convention.
Likewise, Elizabeth Warren is also unlikely to outright win any states, except perhaps her home state of Massachusetts, but she’s practicing the same strategy of trying to accumulate delegates with the understanding that no single candidate will hit the magic first-round number to win the nomination without the help of Superdelegates.
The campaign will look very different on Wednesday after the dust settles and the delegate haul is handed out. How close in delegates Biden and Sanders end the week is anyone’s guess right now.
We will have live results for every state on Tuesday and ongoing updates throughout the day.