South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg ended his bid for president on Sunday after a disappointing fourth-place finish in South Carolina this weekend.
The decision comes the day Buttigieg was scheduled to visit Texas for a rally in Dallas and a fundraiser in Austin the next morning.
Meanwhile, his closest competitor, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has only committed more to the Lone Star State. The Massachusetts Senator held a rally in downtown Houston on Saturday where she announced that she would be releasing a plan to address the negative impacts of coronavirus on the economy and public health.
Her visit to Texas comes shortly after her campaign purchased $3 million worth of ads in Super Tuesday states. Last week, a pro-Warren super PAC did the same with a $9 million ad buy in those states as well. Warren is currently polling at 15 percent in the state, a few points behind Mike Bloomberg and about 10 percentage points behind Joe Biden, who is also visiting Texas this week for rallies in Houston and Dallas. Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to lead Texas in polling.
Buttigieg, the first openly gay candidate to lead a serious campaign for president, surprised the media and fellow candidates with his strong fundraising ability, and memorable debate performances. And despite an impressive first-place finish in Iowa where he poured much of his cash into, Buttigieg ultimately struggled to gain significant support from Black and Latino voters needed to help secure the nomination. Leading into Super Tuesday, national polling showed him in fifth place, several points behind Warren and Bloomberg. Billionaire Tom Steyer also bowed out of the race the same weekend.
With Buttigieg out of the race, it’s possible more leading candidates will be able to handily reach the 15 percent threshold required to win delegates in the Texas primary. State aggregate polling shows Warren is already close or at that threshold and Bloomberg is polling slightly ahead of it.
Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
