Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) dropped her presidential bid Monday.
The Associated Press reports Klobuchar will endorse former Vice President Joe Biden at an event in Dallas on Monday night.
Though the Minnesota senator’s campaign picked up steam in recent weeks, Klobuchar’s late-stage momentum wasn’t enough to eclipse her most formidable opponents in the crowded Democratic field.
Klobuchar ran as a moderate, betting that focusing on issues that could attract bipartisan support ― combating drug and alcohol addiction, preserving voting rights, antitrust enforcement ― would earn her votes. She touched on those ideas in June when she became the first 2020 contender to lay out a comprehensive plan for her first 100 days in office.
But Klobuchar’s more moderate proposals on climate change and health care never picked up much support, while bold, progressive ideas from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) helped propel them to the top of the crowded primary field.
One of six female candidates to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination, Klobuchar made some headlines for calling out sexism in politics. Days ahead of the Nov. 20 Democratic debate, she argued that Pete Buttigieg, one of her opponents and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would not have qualified for the debate if he were a woman, given his lack of experience in Washington.
Klobuchar picked up a key endorsement from the New York Times editorial board on Jan. 19, which the paper also gave to Warren in a shocking break from the tradition of endorsing just one candidate.
Throughout their campaigns, both candidates have found themselves defending their electability ― a concern their male counterparts have rarely been saddled with. Klobuchar often pointed to herself as the best evidence that such talk was unwarranted.
“When you look at what I have done, I have won every race, every place, every time,” she said during the January debate.
But despite being immensely popular in Minnesota, Klobuchar’s efforts to pitch herself as “the senator next door,” as she titled her 2015 book, didn’t always stick the landing. Cracks in her friendly Midwestern persona emerged in the early days of her campaign when multiple former staffers told HuffPost that Klobuchar had a long history of mistreating her staff.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.