The Democratic primary field just got a bit smaller after billionaire Tom Steyer and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out one after the other.
Steyer brought an end to his campaign on Saturday in South Carolina after a distant third-place finish in the state’s primary. He did manage to pick up two delegates with about 11% of the vote, however, after failing to make any ripples in Iowa, New Hampshire or Nevada, he decided to end the long-shot campaign in South Carolina.
“We live in a country that is deeply unjust economically where rich people have been profiting at the expense of everybody else,” Steyer told his reporters, according to the New York Times. “And I didn’t get in this race and start talking about things to get votes. I was in this race to talk about things that I cared the most about.”
The very next day, Buttigieg would announce that he too, was putting an end to his bid for president.
“The truth is that the path has narrowed to a close, for our candidacy if not for our cause,” he said, ending his campaign where it began in South Bend, Ind. “Tonight I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency.”
At first, Buttigieg appeared to have a running start after settling into a virtual tie for first place in Iowa and coming in just behind current front runner Sen. Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire.
However, as the Times notes, the contributions that the campaign expected to pour in after finishing so well in the first two contests never came to fruition.
Buttigieg also struggled to connect with Black voters, putting him in a far distant fourth place in South Carolina where he only collected 3% of the Black vote.