On Feb. 20, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board was the first in the nation to endorse former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the 2020 presidential election. The next week, three others — at The (South Carolina) State , El Paso Times and Orlando Sentinel — did as well. Then Sunday night, Buttigieg exited the race, saying his path to victory had closed after he failed to match strong Iowa and New Hampshire showings in either Nevada or South Carolina.

Buttigieg’s eloquent exit sent a clear message to Democrats that it’s time for the party to coalesce behind a leader who can win the White House just as his campaign sent a clear message that it’s time for America to have an improved global standing, an economy that works for everyone and just basic integrity. His name remains on the California ballot, but voting for him now would be a wasted vote.

With California and 14 other states and territories set to vote on Tuesday — and more than a third of the delegates in the Democratic nomination at stake — our board was left in the unusual position of deciding whether to recommend Californians choose another candidate at this late stage — whether to make a second recommendation in the 2020 Democratic campaign when some boards aren’t making any.

Just last week, The Arizona Republic announced it would not issue endorsements in any race, in part because “more and more of today’s readers see candidate endorsements as an intrusion on the electoral process.” The decision followed similar ones last month by the Concord (New Hampshire) Monitor and The Dallas Morning News , which also stopped making endorsements.


In our view, this year’s presidential campaign was too important not to offer our insights. The Democratic Party is embroiled in a civil war between progressives and moderates as it tries to nominate someone who can beat a president who reinvented the Republican Party — and not for the better — in his own image. It’s our belief only a centrist path can lead to the White House in an America in dire need of decency and divided over issues like immigration and health care.

Could we be wrong? Sure. We admit we don’t have all the answers. But we write editorials almost every day on a wide range of subjects. We’d be derelict in our duties if we didn’t apply that same thoughtful approach to the selection of the most powerful American every four years. Also, we don’t view our endorsements as edicts that dictate how we expect you to vote. We see them as information for you to use or not. We see a value in explaining how we think — and why — because our thought process is as important as our recommendations. Our hope is that they spark conversations about what society values in public servants and public service. That’s why our Buttigieg endorsement was so long that it took up a full page in the newspaper.

So should we recommend another candidate in the 2020 presidential race now? The answer is yes.

This fall, Republican President Donald Trump, whose cruel rhetoric, crueler immigration policies and incredible institutional disdain we have criticized since the days of his 2016 candidacy, will square off against one of the Democratic nominees from this shrinking list: former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.


We first assessed this field when singling out Buttigieg’s moderate approach, military background and executive experience — and the enthusiasm he inspired as a young, eloquent, openly gay candidate. We called Sanders too far to the left because we worry about how he would pay for or accomplish his expensive policy agenda, criticized Bloomberg’s past embrace of discriminatory policies, discredited Warren’s Medicare for All plan (similar to Sanders’) and ripped Biden’s uninspiring and uneven campaign.

We praised Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar highly in our endorsement but then saw her perform worse than Buttigieg and Warren in Nevada and South Carolina. A day after Buttigieg quit the race, Klobuchar ended her campaign and endorsed Biden.

That’s because Biden has been ascendant. He’s coming off his finest week in three presidential campaigns dating to 1988. He finished second — admittedly by a lot — to Sanders in Nevada, had his best debate of the campaign, then won South Carolina by a wider margin than he’d lost Nevada. His victory came days after an endorsement by the state’s popular U.S. Rep. James Clyburn and Clyburn’s criticism that Biden needed to “ overhaul ” a campaign that had been lackluster.

It’s partly because Clyburn’s endorsement made such a difference that we offer a new suggestion ourselves. Here is our logic:


1) Our concerns about Bloomberg and Sanders are unchanged.

2) While we’re impressed with Warren’s intellect and debate prowess and have no doubt she would skewer Trump on stage as she did Bloomberg, we are skeptical of both her path to victory and her call for an end to private health insurance, which many Americans seem fearful of abandoning at this moment.

3) A vote for Biden is the most tactical vote against Trump.

Biden’s health care plan is a more modest “build on Obamacare not scrap it,” something we’ve long supported. Biden’s appeal as an elder statesman is obvious, and he leads in the overall popular vote now. Is he the best choice despite our earlier concerns? We think so, as does Buttigieg who was expected to endorse him on Monday. Bottom line: We can’t embrace what Buttigieg calls Sanders’ “inflexible, ideological revolution.” Yes, Sanders has tapped into the populist anger and passion Trump did in 2016, and could amass an insurmountable delegate lead this week. But FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver’s win probabilities this weekend showed Biden and Sanders could each win at least six states Tuesday. And while polling averages show Sanders should easily eclipse the threshold of 15% of the vote in California needed to secure any of its delegates, other candidates, including Biden, seem on the cusp of that. A swing Biden’s way would make a big difference in the delegate count. Sanders and Biden already each have more delegates than all the other candidates combined. So will Biden be the beneficiary of Buttigieg’s exit? We think he could be, with the right encouragement.


What’s certain is Sanders supporters won’t be deterred. They feel this is their moment after their candidate came so close in 2016 and after he has rallied big crowds during this election cycle. Supporters of other candidates are just as passionate. That’s great. That’s democracy in action.

Our suggestion then is aimed at undecided voters who control the fate of the Democratic Party and the nation.

Biden showed in South Carolina he can unify the party’s moderate wing and appeal to African American voters to build a coalition, just as Sanders motivated Latinos in Nevada. But Biden’s eight years working with Barack Obama will give him credibility with many voters, including African Americans. And as both vice president and a U.S. senator for 36 years, Biden laps the field in foreign policy experience. There’s little question he can go toe to toe with Trump in the general election. There’s less question he’d have more credibility handling crises like the coronavirus outbreak or a tumbling stock market than Trump, whose habit of twisting the truth and pointing fingers cuts against him when Americans just want facts and reassurances.

Biden’s speaking gaffes and old-school politics and behavior may continue making some people nervous about his candidacy, but he hasn’t had a recent heart attack or refused to release medical records like Sanders, and when Biden needed it most — after his impressive South Carolina win — his speech was stellar .


He sounded at ease. He invoked unity, strength and a comeback mentality that should appeal to many Americans, including California voters who haven’t decided who to vote for yet. “All those of you who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign,” he said.

It was one night, one speech. But it was formidable. American voters who aren’t persuaded by Sanders, 78 — who want results, not revolution — should consider voting for Biden, 77. With Buttigieg out of the race for president, we recommend Californians vote instead for Joe Biden on Tuesday.

See all of our endorsements.