After Joe Biden’s decisive victory in South Carolina on Saturday, Mike Bloomberg’s campaign advisers lobbied Bloomberg to drop out of the race and endorse Biden before Super Tuesday, four sources briefed on the internal conversations said. Some of the sources said that campaign manager Kevin Sheekey and other top campaign officials argued to Bloomberg that the best chance of beating Donald Trump in November would be for Bloomberg to exit the race to bolster Biden’s candidacy as Biden battles with Bernie Sanders for the nomination. “There is a prevailing view Mike should drop out,” one Bloomberg adviser told me.

Campaign officials are privately frustrated that Bloomberg rejected their advice to drop out and pour their resources into helping Biden, sources said. “The dynamic of the race clearly changed,” a Bloomberg adviser told me. Bloomberg disagreed that Biden’s resurgence in South Carolina fundamentally nullified Bloomberg’s candidacy. “Mike is a data guy, and he’s looking at the numbers thinking, I’ll be damned if I walk away before a single vote is cast for me,” one source said, explaining Bloomberg’s thinking.

Bloomberg’s original argument for running was that he would fill the space that Biden’s implosion seemed to open up. Now, people close to Bloomberg fear that Bloomberg is playing the spoiler role tonight in delegate-rich states like California by siphoning votes from Biden. “It’s clearer than ever after the weekend that it’s over and thus he will risk making Ross Perot and Ralph Nader look good if he stays in this,” a person close to the campaign told me. A Bloomberg adviser told me that Bloomberg would consider dropping out after Super Tuesday if there continues to be no path. “He’s not going to stay in and say, ‘Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.’”

Sheekey did not respond to requests for comment.

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