Klobuchar ends bid, backs Biden
Her momentum ended as quickly as it began
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who pitched herself as a moderate with Midwestern appeal and the political “grit” to beat President Donald Trump, ended her presidential bid Monday, her campaign said in a statement.
Klobuchar was expected to endorse former Vice President Joe Biden at a rally Monday night in Dallas, her campaign said.
Klobuchar enjoyed a brief surge after the New Hampshire primary, where a surprise third-place finish gave her a needed fundraising boon and fresh political momentum. Klobuchar said the New Hampshire results showed she could beat expectations and build a broad coalition, as she had in her Senate races.
But her “Klomentum” seemed to evaporate as quickly as it emerged. She only garnered 3% of the vote in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, a result that all but closed her path to the nomination.
Her exit from the race came less than 24 hours after one of her moderate rivals, Pete Buttigieg, dropped out. With the departures of Klobuchar and Buttigieg, who had been courting moderate Democrats, Biden might have a better shot at competing with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner and a Democratic socialist.
Many moderate Democrats and establishment party figures fear that if Sanders wins the nomination, he won’t be able to attract the broad coalition Democrats need to beat Trump.
Just a few days after the New Hampshire primary, Klobuchar stumbled during an interview with Telemundo when asked if she could name the president of Mexico. “No,” she responded, in a lapse that came back to haunt her during the pivotal Feb.18 Democratic debate. Days after that, she finished sixth in the Nevada caucuses.
Klobuchar’s exit from the race will be welcomed news to the cluster of other candidates trying to claim the centrist mantle, including Biden. But it’s not clear where Klobuchar’s supporters will land.
Klobuchar invested most of her time and money in Iowa, where she finished in fifth place, and New Hampshire, where she snagged nearly 20% of the vote. The New Hampshire bounce was not enough to help her campaign scaleup for as the race moved to Nevada and South Carolina.
Klobuchar’s rivals, including Biden and Sanders, were better organized in those states. They also had broader support among Latino and AfricanAmerican voters, key constituencies Klobuchar was unable to win.
Klobuchar, 59, has served as the senior U.S. Senator from Minnesota since 2007, the state’s first female senator. Before that, she served as Hennepin County Attorney. She launched her campaign during of a snowstorm on the Mississippi River shore.
On some progressive policies, such as “Medicare for All” and access to free college, Klobuchar differed from her more progressive counterparts.
On the campaign trail, Klobuchar at times have to contend with reporting that dubbed her one of the “worst bosses” in Congress, a designation Politico gave her in 2018.