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Reuters

Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign on Wednesday and said he was backing Joe Biden for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge President Donald Trump in the November election.
“A viable path to the nomination no longer exists,” Bloomberg said in a statement, having failed to deliver convincing wins in his electoral debut on Super Tuesday despite lavish spending on campaign ads across the United States.
Endorsing Biden, Bloomberg said: “I will work to make him the next president of the United States.”
His exit ended a novel electoral strategy, a vast experiment in political advertising, as Bloomberg, 78, skipped the four early-voting states and instead focused on the 14-state Super Tuesday contest.
His only victory on Tuesday came in the US territory of American Samoa.

Biden, 77, the former vice-president, accomplished his Super Tuesday goal of muscling Bloomberg aside and consolidating support of moderates to turn the race into a one-on-one contest against the democratic socialist, Senator Bernie Sanders.
Bloomberg was winning more than 15 per cent of the vote, enough to pick up some delegates, in Tennessee, Texas, Colorado, Utah, California and Arkansas.
Since entering the race on November 24, Bloomberg had spent more than US$500 million of the fortune he built on his eponymous media company on an ad campaign that vaulted him into the top tier of the Democratic field.
After blanketing the airwaves with promises that he could defeat Trump in the November 3 election, his support among Democrats and independents in public opinion polls rose to around 15 per cent; he had entered at about 5 per cent.
He hired thousands of staff and mounted a vigorous national tour focused on the 14 states that voted on March 3.
But the former mayor was dogged along the way by criticism over his past support of policies seen as racially discriminatory, including stop-and-frisk policing, which ensnared a disproportionate number of African-Americans and Latinos, as well as past sexist remarks.
Biden celebrates big wins over Sanders on Super Tuesday
His Democratic rivals attacked him in his first presidential debate on February 19 in Nevada. US Senator Elizabeth Warren lambasted him for making crude jokes about women and Sanders accused him of trying to buy the election.
Outside his rallies – which were often smaller than those of his rivals – protesters regularly waved signs echoing Sanders’ claim. Inside them, Bloomberg detractors and enthusiasts alike ate from tables stocked with free food.
Bloomberg was assailed for his spending despite his pledge to use his personal fortune to support the eventual Democratic nominee, whoever it was. Bloomberg apologised for stop-and-frisk a few days before he announced his candidacy.

When Bloomberg got into the race many months after other leading candidates, he said he was worried none of the other candidates could beat Trump.
“Trump would eat ‘em up,” he told CBS’s This Morning on December 6. He increasingly pitched himself as the centrist alternative to Sanders. In the February 19 debate, he described Sanders’ policies as “communism”.
Bloomberg’s political fortunes initially rose after Biden, who led in public opinion polls during much of 2019, performed poorly in the first three nomination contests: Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
Bloomberg did not compete in those races, nor in the fourth contest in South Carolina, saying his late entry made it impossible to assemble a competitive election staff in those states.
Bloomberg heavily criticised Trump, and the two New York billionaires traded insults, with the president mocking Bloomberg’s short stature on Twitter, nicknaming him “mini-Mike”.
After spending much of his life as a Democrat, he switched to the Republican Party in 2001 to run for mayor of New York. He became an independent in 2007, and switched back to the Democratic Party in 2018.
His past as a Republican also dogged him during his presidential run. Warren attacked Bloomberg at the Democrats’ February 25 debate for giving money in 2012 to support the election campaign of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican and a key ally of Trump.


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Michael Bloomberg drops out of Democratic presidential race, backs Joe Biden

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Photo: AFP

Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont and 2020 presidential candidate, speaks during a primary night rally in Essex Junction, Vermont, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. The biggest day of the presidential primary calendar will define the nomination fight for Sanders and Joe Biden and determine whether Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren have a rationale for carrying on their campaigns. Photographer: Kate Flock/Bloomberg

Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during an primary night rally in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. The biggest day of the presidential primary calendar will define the nomination fight for Bernie Sanders and Biden and determine whether Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren have a rationale for carrying on their campaigns. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Biden celebrates big wins over Sanders in Super Tuesday contest

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Photo: AFP

Joe Biden speaks during a primary election night rally in Los Angeles. Photo: AP

Buttigieg exits US presidential race ahead of ‘Super Tuesday’

Pete Buttigieg was the first openly gay US presidential candidate from a major party. Photo: AFP

Democratic presidential candidate and former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, left, accompanied by his husband Chasten Buttigieg, walk to speaks with members of the media, Sunday, March 1, 2020, in Plains, Ga. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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Billionaire former New York mayor failed to deliver convincing wins in his electoral debut on Super Tuesday despite lavish spending on campaign ads
Biden consolidated support of moderates to turn the race into a one-on-one contest against Senator Bernie Sanders



Billionaire former New York mayor failed to deliver convincing wins in his electoral debut on Super Tuesday despite lavish spending on campaign ads.
