March 2, 2020 (Gephardt Daily/UPI) — Amy Klobuchar, a three-term Minnesota senator who sought to unite the Democratic Party behind a pragmatic centrism, is expected to drop out of the presidential race, multiple reports indicated Monday, just hours after a rally in Salt Lake City.
Klobuchar appeared at 9 a.m. Monday at The Depot at 13 N. 400 West, speaking to the assembled crowd for around half-an-hour.
CNN, NBC News and ABC News cited campaign sources as saying Klobuchar would fly to Dallas to join former Vice President Joe Biden at a rally where she will suspend her campaign and offer him her endorsement one day before the crucial Super Tuesday primaries.
She became the third Democratic presidential hopeful to drop out of the race in two days, following former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Sunday and billionaire activist Tom Steyer earlier Monday.
The 59-year-old Klobuchar entered the race in February 2019 during a snowstorm in Minneapolis. Well liked in her home state, where she has rolled to three consecutive lopsided Senate victories, she faced significant competition in the moderate lane from Biden and Buttigieg.
She pinned much of her hopes on neighboring Iowa, spending considerable time and resources in the state, where she was the only Democratic candidate to visit all 99 of its counties. Klobuchar, however, was disappointed with a fifth-place finish there.
She regained some momentum with a memorable performance in the Democratic debate before the New Hampshire primary, notching a third-place finish. But she could not translate that bump into a lasting trend, coming in sixth in both the Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina primary.
A third of the convention delegates– 1,357 — will be awarded on Super Tuesday. It will take 1,617 total delegates to earn the nomination on the first ballot in the convention in Milwaukee, Wis., and a spot against President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Prior to South Carolina, Sanders had 58 delegates, Biden had 50 and Buttigieg was in third place with 26 delegates.
However, the South Carolina primary gave Biden 35 additional delegates and Sanders 13, with Buttigieg adding no additional delegates. Biden won 48.4 percent of the vote in South Carolina, with Sanders winning 19.9 percent; Buttigieg was in fourth place with 8.2 percent.
Sanders is also making a campaign stop Monday, at the Utah State Fairpark, which was set to get underway at noon.
Buttigieg visited Salt Lake City on Monday, Feb. 17, while former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a rally here Thursday, Feb. 19.
