Mike Bloomberg dropped out of the 2020 presidential race on Wednesday, a day after his dismal showing on Super Tuesday, and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, whose campaign pulled off a stunning comeback by winning nine of 14 states in the delegate-rich contest.
The billionaire former New York City mayor spent hundreds of millions of dollars on his failed campaign.
“I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden,” Bloomberg said in a statement released Wednesday.
Biden, in a thank-you tweet, said he and Bloomberg are united in a common goal: stopping President Trump from winning a second term.
“I can’t thank you enough for your support — and for your tireless work on everything from gun safety reform to climate change,” he said in a posting. “This race is bigger than candidates and bigger than politics. It’s about defeating Donald Trump, and with your help, we’re gonna do it.”
Bloomberg said he has always used “data to inform decisions.”
“After yesterday’s results, the delegate math has become virtually impossible — and a viable path to the nomination no longer exists. But I remain clear-eyed about my overriding objective: victory in November. Not for me, but for our country,” he continued. “And so while I will not be the nominee, I will not walk away from the most important political fight of my life.”
Super Tuesday marked Bloomberg’s first time being on the ballot in the 2020 race, but despite spending more than $500 million, he was only able to win American Samoa and compile 44 delegates out of the 1,357 up for grabs.
Bloomberg spent $215 million of his own fortune on ads in Super Tuesday states, according to the Wall Street Journal.
At a campaign appearance in Miami on Tuesday, the billionaire media mogul acknowledged how far behind he was in the race and said his only path to victory was if Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders failed to win enough delegates. “Well, I don’t think I can win any other way, but a contested convention is a democratic process,” he told reporters. “There are rules in the Democratic Party of how you go about this.”
Noting his campaign slogan was “Mike will get it done,” Bloomberg said he would continue working on the “it,” laying out a series of objectives, including gun control, battling climate change, making college accessible and affordable and creating an equal economic playing field.
But Biden, riding momentum from a resounding win in South Carolina on Saturday and endorsements from former Democratic rivals Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg, chalked up wins in a number of Southern states, including Virginia, and then pulled off a victory in Texas, which Sanders had been expected to take.
He gained 453 delegates to Sanders’ 382.
He even defeated Sen. Elizabeth Warren on her home turf of Massachusetts.
Sanders won three states — his home state of Vermont as well as Utah and Colorado.
He was also leading in California, with its 494 delegates, but full results have yet to be tabulated.
As of Wednesday morning, Sanders had 33.6 percent of the Golden State vote, Biden had 24.8 percent, Bloomberg had 14.4 percent and Warren had 7 percent.
A candidate needs to compile 1,991 delegates to get the nomination on the first ballot at July’s Democratic National Convention.
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