Democratic party candidate Pete Buttigieg is quitting the race after poor showings in Nevada and South Carolina. With little cash on hand and rivals surging, the 38-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said that “the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals is to step aside and help bring our party and our nation together” as he announced the suspension of his campaign.
Mr Buttigieg surprisingly, and narrowly, won the first event of the primary season, the caucuses in Iowa on 3 February. But he failed to repeat that success and win the delegates needed to make him the front- runner and later confirm his nomination. He finished a distant fourth in South Carolina on Saturday.
Buttigieg broke new ground as the first openly gay man to launch a major party campaign for President; right up to the end, opinion polls showed him soundly defeating President Trump in a one-on-one matchup.