The argument for him to exit is more compelling than the case for Klobuchar, who has at least won a few delegates. Steyer has won no delegates in three races despite spending millions of dollars. (This billionaire really cannot buy a race even in a small state.) He came in seventh in Iowa with 0.3 percent of the vote. He came in sixth in New Hampshire (up to 3.6 percent!). In Nevada, according to an NPR report, “Billionaire businessman Tom Steyer has held the most events in Nevada of the eight Democrats. ... [H]e held a total of 56 events in Nevada. He also leads in ad spending in the state, dropping more than $16 million.” That $16 million got him fifth place, soaring to ... 4.7 percent of the vote. He leads in no race in any state. He is at 2 percent in most national polls.

Steyer is engaged in a pure vanity effort, one that might cost a viable non-Sanders candidate the race in South Carolina, where Sanders’s mammoth ad spending and cash donations have given him a chunk of the electorate, according to multiple polls. The New York Times reported:

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As he courts voters across South Carolina, Tom Steyer, a billionaire businessman running for president, has lavished money on the black community — employing black-owned businesses, hiring African-Americans for his staff and buying ads with black-owned news organizations. But as he tries to forge connections with the black community, some of Mr. Steyer’s transactions have drawn increased scrutiny, and prompted suggestions that he is trying to wield influence through his spending.

The question about “buying” the presidency is misplaced. Steyer, for all his millions, will get nowhere close to winning the nomination. But there is a real possibility that the least serious candidate in the race — who imagines that passing term limits (requiring a constitutional amendment) is the way to pass gun safety — will buy enough of the share of the electorate in one state to send the party hurtling into the abyss of a Sanders nomination.

And let’s be clear: Sanders would be at a disadvantage in ways other candidates would not. His promised fleet of new voters has not arrived. (As the Times reports: “Despite a virtual tie in Iowa, a narrow victory in New Hampshire and a big triumph in Nevada, the first three nominating contests reveal a fundamental challenge for Mr. Sanders’s political revolution: He may be winning, but not because of his longstanding pledge to expand the Democratic base.”) No other candidate is blowing up support within the party the way Sanders has done; no other candidate carries the toxic socialist label, which voters say by significant margins will turn them off against a candidate. (NPR reports: “Even 50% of Gen Z and millennial respondents . . . had an unfavorable view of it, as opposed to just 38% who had a favorable one. Suburban voters, who have been trending with Democrats since Trump’s election, are overwhelmingly against it 27% to 61%.”)

The only way Sanders wins — and it might already be too late to stop him — is if candidates such as Steyer continue to harbor the delusion that they can win and remain in the race, sucking up a share of the electorate that might go to a viable contender (such as former vice president Joe Biden in South Carolina).

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When will Steyer stop throwing good money after bad? Apparently, not before South Carolina, where it could make a real difference. If Democrats choose a high-risk nominee and lose to President Trump, it will not be because a billionaire bought the presidency. It may, however, be in part because a billionaire unsuccessfully tried to buy South Carolina. South Carolina voters should be forewarned.

Opinion Who could win the Democratic primary? Use the Post Opinions Simulator to pick a state and see what might happen in upcoming primaries and caucuses.