Klobuchar ends presidential campaign, will back Biden

Washington: Amy Klobuchar, a Midwestern moderate, will end her underdog presidential campaign and endorse Joe Biden, her team said Monday, on the eve of the biggest voting day in the Democratic nomination race.

“The senator is flying to Dallas to join vice president Biden at his rally tonight where she will suspend her campaign and endorse the vice president,” a Klobuchar campaign spokesperson told AFP.

The move is a major boost for former vice president Biden, following the withdrawal of another moderate, Pete Buttigieg, on Sunday.

After a blowout victory in the last primary, Saturday in South Carolina, Biden heads into “Super Tuesday” with a head of steam as he challenges leftist firebrand Bernie Sanders to see who faces Donald Trump in November's election.

Klobuchar, a US senator from the state of Minnesota, had positioned herself as a centrist and pragmatist who has worked across the aisle in Washington and could bring that spirit of unity and cooperation into the Oval Office.

Despite a few compelling debate performances, the 59-year-old never registered above single digits in national polling averages and was not expected to deliver a strong showing on Tuesday, when 14 states go to the polls.

Her exit leaves two women in the Democratic nomination hunt: Senator Elizabeth Warren, a progressive from Massachusetts, and the anti-war congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

Warren thanked her friend Klobuchar in a tweet. “You've been a champion for working families and women in politics, and I look forward to keeping up that fight by your side,” she wrote.