Updated at 9:20 p.m. with O’Rourke’s appearance and rally ended

Centrist Democrats closed ranks behind Joe Biden on Monday, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg — the freshest casualties of 2020 — converging on Dallas to help the former vice president keep the nomination from Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Beto O’Rourke, the former El Paso Democrat who nearly unseated Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, made a surprise appearance at Biden’s side, electrifying the crowd at Gilley’s honky-tonk.

The show of force on the eve of Super Tuesday amounted to a breathtaking turnaround as Biden plays catch-up with the democratic socialist, Sanders, and tries to fend off billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who has pumped more than $500 million into the race.

A landslide victory in South Carolina on Saturday revived Biden’s moribund campaign after lackluster performances in earlier contests, and he scrambled to take advantage of his “Joe-mentum."

The endorsements may not directly swing many votes. But they signaled to moderates that Biden is the horse to back.

Klobuchar was the top choice of just 4% of Texas Democrats in a Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll released Sunday, a distant fifth. Buttigieg was fourth with 8%. O’Rourke still led the polls in Texas when he dropped out on Nov. 1.

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke endorses Democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden during a rally held at Gilley's in Dallas on March 2, 2020. With them is O'Rourke's wife Amy O'Rourke. (Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)

“I will be casting my ballot for Joe Biden,” O’Rourke told a roaring crowd of thousands at Gilley’s. “We need somebody who can beat Donald Trump ... and in Joe Biden, we have that man."

“I cannot think of a better way to end my campaign than joining his,” Klobuchar said, emotion in her voice.

Anxiety about Sanders is especially acute in Texas, where O’Rourke’s near miss against Cruz in 2018 put Democrats on the cusp of breaking the GOP’S quarter-century grip.

“Most Americans don’t want the promise of revolution,” Biden said, playing on fears among many Democrats that Sanders is too extreme, and could cost them the White House and control of Congress. “We are better than this moment. We are better than this president.”

Others mistrust Bloomberg, a former Republican media mogul who served as New York mayor. He skipped the four states that voted in February, so Super Tuesday will be his first test.

The only way we beat Trump is through a politics that reflects the decency of the American people. It’s what we sought to practice in my campaign—and it’s what @JoeBiden has practiced his whole life.



I'm proud to stand with the VP and help make him our next Commander-in-Chief. pic.twitter.com/Y9SqDLZS0g — Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) March 3, 2020

The field winnowed dramatically as three contenders dropped out in three days.

Billionaire Tom Steyer ended his effort on Saturday.

On Sunday night, Buttigieg jilted supporters awaiting a rally at a downtown Dallas park, flying home instead to South Bend, Ind., where he served as mayor. He flew to Dallas in secret on Monday, making a surprise appearance with Biden at Chicken Scratch restaurant in West Dallas, where dozens of VIP Biden supporters mingled before the rally.

“I want you to know how unbelievably and unfailingly decent I have known Vice President Biden to be,” Buttigieg said, lauding him for being able to unite Americans. “We need a politics that’s about decency, a politics that brings back dignity.”

Buttigieg skipped the rally at Gilley’s. Supporters packed the dance floor to witness a potential turning point unlike anything so far in the 2020 primaries. An enormous Texas flag hung behind the stage, and signs such as “It’s Biden time” and “Texas 4 Biden” adorned the room.

Chants of “We need Joe!” broke out, replaced later by “Amy! Amy!” when Klobuchar appeared with Biden.

He gave her a peck on the cheek when she announced her endorsement, which by then was apparent.

If you feel tired of noise and extremes, she said, “You have a home with Joe Biden," warning that unless Democrats join behind Biden, “we will spend the next four years watching Donald Trump tearing apart our country.”

“Texans, we need to unite our party and our country," she said.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) endorses Democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden during a rally for Biden held at Gilley's in Dallas on March 2, 2020. (Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)

A parade of state lawmakers warmed up the crowd making the case that, with the Texas House teetering — Democrats need to flip nine seats to take control — Biden is the one they want at the top of the ticket in November.

“We all love Joe,” O’Rourke said, promising to treat him to a “world class” meal after the rally, at Whataburger. “We need somebody that can bring us together and heal us. We need somebody who can reestablish the moral authority of the United States.... We need Joe Biden."

Team of rivals

Like Buttigieg, Klobuchar faced a rough time across the 14-state Super Tuesday battlefield, including in her home state of Minnesota, where Sanders scheduled a rally in St. Paul on Monday night in hopes of delivering a coup de grace.

At the White House, President Donald Trump tried to stir infighting among Democrats, asserting that they were “staging a coup against Bernie.” Biden, he said, probably promised jobs in his administration in exchange for rivals dropping out and endorsing him.

“That’s called a quid pro quo, right? Quid. Pro. Quo,” Trump told reporters, invoking a phrase associated with allegations involving the pressure he put on Ukraine to announce a corruption probe aimed at Biden.

If these are future cabinet members, it’s already a team of rivals. Klobuchar and Buttigieg sniped during the debates, with the senator clearly irked that her younger, less experienced male rival was generating the excitement that long eluded her.

They are staging a coup against Bernie! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 2, 2020

Texas voters will pick nominees for president, U.S. Senate and House, and legislative races on Tuesday.

Polls show Sanders holds a slight lead over Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her home state, Massachusetts, where a win would hobble his closest ideological rival.

And he holds formidable leads in Texas and California, the two biggest prizes on a day when one-third of Democratic delegates will be awarded. The other 12 states going to the polls are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

The embrace from Buttigieg, 38, O’Rourke, 39, and Klobuchar, 59, amounted to a generational blessing of sorts. Biden would be the oldest first-term president ever.

In fact, all of the remaining serious contenders are in their 70s — Sanders and Bloomberg are 78, Biden is 77, and Warren is 70 — an unprecedented scenario as Democrats scramble to block a 73-year-old incumbent from winning a second term.

“I don’t think Biden’s trying to win Texas,” said former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings at Chicken Scratch. “I think he wants to get enough delegates coming out of this and make sure that we stay competitive as we go throughout the rest of the South. And then the race is on.”

Democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden speaks during a rally held at Gilley's in Dallas on March 2, 2020. (Juan Figueroa / Staff photographer)

Big turnaround

Biden began his bid a year ago as the front-runner and hung onto that perch for months, thanks to his experience as Barack Obama’s understudy for two terms, and a perception that he was the most widely acceptable Democrat and therefore the most “electable.”

Poor performances in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada punctured that aura. He roared back in South Carolina — with precious little time to leverage that before polls open on Super Tuesday.

Biden stumped in Houston on Monday afternoon before arriving in Dallas, his first public events in Texas in six weeks, as he fell further and further behind.

Just over 1 million Texas Democrats have already cast ballots during the early voting window that ended on Friday.

Sanders leads in Texas at 29%, with Bloomberg at 21% and Biden, in third, drawing the support of 19%, in the Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler poll. Only a month earlier, Biden held the lead.

A CBS/Emerson College poll released on Monday showed a tighter race, though: Sanders ahead of Biden 31-26.

Buttigieg, 38, told supporters Sunday night that his path to the nomination had become too narrow to continue — and that blocking Trump’s re-election was his paramount concern. He made it clear that nominating Sanders would make that task harder, though he didn’t immediately announce support for Biden.

Steyer, a philanthropist who is somewhat more progressive than Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar, has not thrown support to anyone yet. Nor have other major contenders who’ve fallen in the last few months, among them Sen. Cory Booker and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who still appear on the Texas ballot.

Biden was enjoying a bandwagon effect ahead of his arrival in Dallas.

Democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden grabs a shake with Beto O’Rourke and his wife Amy at Whataburger near Cityplace in Dallas, late Monday March 2, 2020. O’Rourke endorsed Biden at a rally earlier in the evening. (Photo Michael Hamtil/The Dallas Morning News) pic.twitter.com/sj2H1xd5zH — Michael Hamtil (@mhamtil) March 3, 2020

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, who had backed O’Rourke, her fellow El Pasoan, issued her endorsement on Monday, joining a half-dozen other Texans in Congress who support Biden: Dallas Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Colin Allred, and Fort Worth Rep. Marc Veasey.

That trio, all members of the Congressional Black Caucus, warmed up the crowd at Gilley’s.

“There’s no one better than Joe Biden to bring our country back together after this horribly divisive three years we’ve been through,” Allred said.

Said Veasey, Biden can “return some respect and decency back to the nation.”

Johnson, who Biden later called a “legend,” took a poke at Bloomberg as she praised the former vice president.

“He may not have the most money but he has the most character,” she said. “I know he stands for what I stand for ... This is a man that worked with us to get the right to vote and to keep it.”

Austin Mayor Steve Adler joined the team earlier on Monday. He had introduced Buttigieg at his campaign launch but now, he said, “It’s time for the party to consolidate.”

Still he said, the race isn’t over. In Texas, Adler conceded at Chicken Scratch, “The smart money would probably have to be on Sanders winning.”