(SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg suspended his campaign Sunday, ending an unexpectedly successful White House bid highlighted by a primary win in Iowa.

Buttigieg’s exit comes on the heels of Joe Biden’s convincing win in South Carolina. The former vice president is trying to consolidate support with moderate Democrats and wealthy donors ahead of this week’s crucial Super Tuesday clash.

Both wealthy donors and grassroots givers favored Buttigieg, making his exit an attractive fundraising opportunity for 2020 Democrats still in the race. Biden will likely attract more wealthy donors after Buttigieg’s exit, as donors to the Indiana Democrat already gave more than $8 million to Biden’s campaign.

But it’s actually Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) whose donors have the most overlap with Buttigieg backers. Nearly 124,000 Buttigieg donors also gave to Warren for a total of nearly $11 million.

The overwhelming overlap with Warren isn’t surprising considering both candidates find strong financial backing from those in occupations typically including highly-educated Americans. They also both struggle to find support from minority voters.

Despite the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has far more individual donors than any other 2020 Democrat, he doesn’t pull in significant campaign money from Buttigieg donors. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) brought in more campaign cash from these donors than Sanders, despite raising $90 million fewer dollars from individuals than Sanders through January.

Supporters of remaining 2020 candidates took to social media Monday to lure Buttigieg followers. The most recent Morning Consult poll found that Sanders was the top second choice among Buttigieg supporters, followed closely by Biden and Warren. But in the most recent Quinnipiac poll, only 11 percent of Buttigieg supporters said Sanders was their second choice. More than half of those polled chose Warren or Klobuchar, with another 19 percent picking Biden.

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Buttigieg raised over $81 million from individual donors, roughly the same amount as Warren and far more than any candidate other than Sanders. Buttigieg emerged as a favorite of big-dollar donors and well-connected fundraisers — a source of attacks from his more progressive primary opponents — but he also attracted grassroots support that catapulted his fundraising past Biden.

That small-dollar support waned as the campaign went on. The Buttigieg campaign limped into February with $6.6 million cash on hand after depleting its resources in Iowa and New Hampshire. After Biden’s blowout win in South Carolina where Buttigieg garnered just 8 percent of the vote, wealthy donors reportedly flocked to Biden. The former vice president is now seen as having the best chance of taking down Sanders.

Buttigieg signaled in his exit speech that Sanders would not be the best candidate to unite the country or to win seats in the House and Senate. Buttigieg has previously expressed his distaste for Sanders’ candidacy and warned that Sanders could get a “seemingly insurmountable delegate lead” on Super Tuesday.

Biden and Buttigieg had reportedly been exchanging voicemails prior to his exit. President Donald Trump — whose allies are seemingly trying to stop Biden while elevating Sanders — tried to stoke division among Democrats Sunday by tweeting that the 2020 Democrats are working together to stop Sanders.

Biden is by no means the favorite heading into Tuesday’s elections. He has invested few resources in Super Tuesday states, and many individuals in those states already cast their ballots through early voting. He will instead rely on momentum from his South Carolina win.

With Buttigieg out of the race, 2020 Democrats other than Sanders have a better chance of reaching the 15 percent threshold required to earn delegates in most states. That could potentially stop the Vermont senator from earning enough delegates to secure a path to the nomination.

Researcher Doug Weber contributed to this report.



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