Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts dropped out of the Democratic presidential race on Wednesday, simply three months after getting into it,
Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts dropped out of the Democratic presidential race on Wednesday, simply three months after getting into it, ending a last-minute marketing campaign that appeared to fizzle out nearly as quickly because it had begun.
Mr. Patrick had hoped to seize delegates in his neighboring state of New Hampshire and to carve away former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s help amongst black voters in South Carolina. However whereas Mr. Biden has misplaced help, Mr. Patrick didn’t achieve any. Within the New Hampshire major on Tuesday, he received less than 0.5 percent of the vote.
“I believed and nonetheless consider we had a robust case to make for having the ability to ship higher outcomes,” he mentioned in a message to supporters. “However the vote in New Hampshire final night time was not sufficient for us to create the sensible wind on the marketing campaign’s again to go on to the following spherical of voting.”
Mr. Patrick was the third candidate to finish his marketing campaign after the New Hampshire major, following the entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, each of whom dropped out late Tuesday night time.
In South Carolina, native Democratic officers mentioned that whereas Mr. Patrick had generated enthusiasm amongst some older black Democrats, who remembered him because the second black elected governor in historical past, he had little title recognition amongst youthful voters.
And in a big setback, he didn’t safe a spot on the poll in Michigan, which is able to maintain its major on March 10 and might be a key battleground if the race is undecided after Tremendous Tuesday, one week earlier. The Michigan Bureau of Elections concluded that Mr. Patrick had entered the race too late to be robotically included on the poll, and that efforts by his supporters to gather sufficient signatures had fallen short.
The departure of Mr. Patrick, who as soon as served as assistant legal professional basic for civil rights, leaves only one individual of shade, Consultant Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, working in a Democratic major that started as probably the most numerous in historical past.
Mr. Patrick began his campaign on Nov. 14, reversing his determination a 12 months earlier to not run. By the point he entered, different candidates had an enormous head begin. 4 debates had already handed.
He solid himself because the candidate finest suited to unite moderates and progressives amid worries that not one of the contenders already within the subject would be capable to construct a coalition able to defeating President Trump. His stump speeches drew from his compelling life story — he grew up in poverty on Chicago’s South Aspect earlier than ascending to the higher echelons of enterprise and politics.
However Mr. Patrick additionally got here to the marketing campaign with some potential baggage, given a rising progressive motion within the Democratic Get together that’s deeply suspicious of huge enterprise. His profession included positions as company counsel at Texaco and, extra lately, as a managing director at Bain Capital, a personal fairness agency.
And, not like Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York Metropolis who was additionally a latecomer to the race, Mr. Patrick didn’t have sufficient of a private fortune to finance his personal marketing campaign. There was additionally little proof that he had a donor base massive sufficient to make up for months of misplaced fund-raising.
In his message to supporters on Wednesday, Mr. Patrick expressed irritation on the deal with the timing of his marketing campaign.
“Many within the media have famous that I entered the race ‘late,’” he mentioned. “As a direct and limiting consequence, I’ve met many individuals on the marketing campaign path who lament how they wished I had entered the race sooner. As I hope you recognize, I entered this race after I may, and never a second earlier than I ought to have. Extra importantly, I entered the race months earlier than anybody had solid a vote.”