Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg
After winning just 2 percent of the black vote in this weekend’s South Carolina primary, former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg today ended his bid for the Democratic nomination for president. Although he had planned to attend a rally today (Sunday, March 1) in Dallas, Buttigieg instead headed home to Indiana.
Black voters, as NBC News pointed out, are one of the most important Democratic constituencies, and Buttigieg’s poor showing with those voters in South Carolina likely “reinforce[ed] doubts about his ability to win” their votes elsewhere, as well.
Buttigieg, 38, was the first viable openly-gay presidential candidate. He ended his campaign having won 26 delegates.
Gay rights activist Fred Karger, now 70, ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, making him the first openly-gay presidential candidate in a major party, but his campaign was never considered to be viable. But Buttigieg, an Afghan War veteran, ran neck-and-neck with Sen. Bernie Sanders at the front of the pack in Iowa and New Hampshire, and he placed third in Nevada and fourth in South Carolina.
According to NBC News, recent polling by Morning Consult suggests that are likely split nearly evenly among Sanders, Biden, Warren and Bloomberg in terms of their “second choice” candidate: 21 percent for Sanders, 19 percent each for Biden and Warren and 17 percent for Bloomberg.
Buttigieg was one of four candidates who returned a questionnaire on LGBTQ issues sent to each candidate by Dallas Voice. Those who responded are Bloomberg, Warren and Biden.
