Last Updated Mar 2nd, 2020 at 12:30 pm

Pete Buttigieg announced on Sunday night that he is dropping out of the 2020 presidential primary race.

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An Afghanistan veteran and two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Buttigieg was the first openly gay major presidential contender. The 38-year-old's long-shot bid for the White House garnered significantly more support than anyone would have imagined at the outset, but Buttigieg struggled to gain the confidence of minority voters.

The New York Times reports:

Mr. Buttigieg narrowly won the Iowa caucuses early last month and came in a strong second place in the New Hampshire primary, exciting liberal white Democrats with his cool, hyper-articulate manner. But he never broadened his breadth of support in a party with a nonwhite base, and one that has veered leftward since 2018.



He came in a distant third in the Nevada caucuses, which drew strong numbers of Latino voters, and then fourth place in South Carolina, where black voters made up a majority of the Democratic electorate. He won just 3 percent of them, according to exit polls.

According to Fox News:

Buttigieg's withdrawal comes just days before 14 states are set to head to the polls on Super Tuesday, where one-third of all delegates for the nomination will be at stake. His exit likely will harm frontrunner Bernie Sanders by providing a coalescing boost to more moderate candidates, as Buttigieg had gone on the offensive against the Vermont senator and sought to appeal to the centrist base of the party.

Buttigieg's move comes after Joe Biden scored a decisive win in South Carolina amid calls for Democrats in the more moderate lane to gather behind a single candidate to attempt to reign in far-left Bernie Sanders' commanding lead.

President Trump responded on Twitter: