Joe Biden’s (D) campaign on Sunday raised $1 million in the hours following Pete Buttigieg (D) suspending his campaign, totaling $6 million raised overall the entire day.
The former vice president reaped massive financial benefits from Buttigieg’s formal announcement on Sunday, raising $1 million “in the hours between 9 p.m. and midnight Sunday night, as news was breaking that PETE BUTTIGIEG was dropping out of the presidential race,” according to Politico’s Playbook PM.
Biden’s campaign raised $5 million prior to that, meaning he raised $6 million in the day following his massive victory in South Carolina:
Some view Buttigieg’s departure as beneficial to Biden as he moves into Super Tuesday. While the former South Bend mayor, who attempted to brand himself as the more “moderate” candidate — or the alternative to socialist Democrats — did not formally endorse another candidate upon his announcement, reports on Monday indicated that he will likely endorse Biden. However, it is not clear if he will make the rumored endorsement before Super Tuesday.
As Breitbart News reported:
Obama, who has yet to make an endorsement in the primary, suggested to Buttigieg that he use his considerable leverage in the race, though he did not specifically ask the former mayor to support Biden. Buttigieg made no mention of who he would support upon announcing his departure from the race. An endorsement from Buttigieg before Tuesday — in which a third of the delegates are up for grabs — would give Biden a considerable boost as he aims to reclaim his frontrunner status from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Biden, whose strong showing in South Carolina breathed new life into his dwindling campaign, hopes to pose a serious challenge to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Super Tuesday. Voters across 14 states will cast ballots, with one-third of the party’s pledged delegates available for distribution. While Sanders has largely led in Super Tuesday polls, it remains to be seen how Biden’s win in South Carolina and Buttigieg’s absence from the primary will affect voters’ decisions.
Playbook PM reports that Biden’s campaign is hoping, as the field narrows, that “people will look closer at their choices and decide to go with a known entity rather than what they are trying to frame as the uncertainty of a BERNIE presidency.”
The news coincides with reports of Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) intention of joining Biden in Dallas, Texas, on Monday evening in order to suspend her campaign and throw her support behind the former vice president.