Not quite sure what to make of this...
Buttigieg exits presidential race ahead of Super Tuesday, cementing collapse following strong Iowa showing
Pete Buttigieg told supporters he's ending his presidential campaign on Sunday, a campaign source confirmed to Fox News, in an abrupt and surprising pullout that further narrows the field of Democrats less than a month after he declared victory in the contested Iowa caucuses.
Buttigieg had been scheduled to headline a rally in Dallas, Texas on Sunday night. The charter plane has been rerouted to South Bend, Ind., where Buttigieg will announce that he is dropping out, Fox News has learned.
A campaign aide told Fox News that Buttigieg wants to unite the party. Hours earlier, speaking to NBC News' "Meet the Press," Buttigieg vowed that "we'll be assessing at every turn not only what the right answer is for the campaign, but making sure that every step we take is in the best interest of the party and that goal of making sure we defeat Donald Trump -- because our country can't take four more years of this."
Buttigieg narrowly defeated rival Bernie Sanders by delegate count in Iowa, but has since suffered a string of defeats culminating in his drubbing in South Carolina on Saturday, where he finished fourth, behind billionaire Tom Steyer.
President Trump, meanwhile, repeatedly derided what he called Buttigieg's resemblance to the pathetic cartoon character Alfred E. Neuman from Mad magazine.
The former South Bend, Ind. mayor has limited political experience, but sought to build his campaign on his military service and the possibility that he could become the first openly gay president.
Buttigieg struggled winning over black voters in particular. During a visit to Allendale County in South Carolina in December, he remarked, "I know that as somebody who’s new on the scene, I’ve got to earn that trust and we’ve got to have those conversations." He received only nine votes on Saturday in the county, compared to Biden's 552, Tom Steyer's 241, Sanders' 119 and Elizabeth Warren's 17.
14 states are set to head to the polls on Super Tuesday, where one-third of all delegates will be at stake. Buttigieg's move means the race is increasingly likely to come down to Joe Biden, who won by a large margin in South Carolina, and Sanders, who secured the popular vote in Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire.
However, in a memo on Sunday, Warren's campaign said there would likely be a contested convention -- and promised to make a "final play" for the nomination there.
