Buttigieg, Klobuchar boost Joe Biden's White House bid

Joe Biden

U.S. President Joe Biden

File: Rep Jim Clyburn, middle, declares support for Joe Biden

Former US Vice President Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential bid was boosted on Monday as he picked up the endorsements of two former 2020 rivals – Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg – on the eve of the crucial Super Tuesday primary elections

Klobuchar, a U.S. senator from Minnesota, will become the third 2020 candidate in as many days to drop out of the race when she announces the suspension of her campaign in Dallas, where she will also publicly back Biden, a Klobuchar aide said.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Buttigieg, who ended his White House bid on Sunday, also plans to endorse Biden in Dallas, a top adviser said.

Biden is fresh off a resounding victory in Saturday’s South Carolina primary and is aiming for a strong showing on Super Tuesday against U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, the national front-runner and a democratic socialist from Vermont.

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But Biden also faces a challenge from billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg among voters hoping the party will nominate a moderate.

The Super Tuesday contests offer the biggest one-day haul of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the party’s nomination at its national convention in July, with about 1,357 delegates, or nearly one-third of the total number, up for grabs.

Fourteen states – California, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Vermont, Colorado, Utah, North Carolina and Maine – as well as American Samoa and Democrats living abroad cast ballots on Tuesday.

The primary for expatriate Americans is scheduled to run through March 10.

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