Klobuchar announced the end of her bid for the presidency earlier today after a sixth place finish in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, netting only 3.2 percent of the popular vote.
“Today, I am ending my campaign and endorsing Joe Biden for president,” Klobuchar said.
“I cannot think of a better way to end my campaign than joining his,” Klobuchar added.
Klobuchar also called on voters in her home state to lend their support to Biden.
“Tomorrow is Super Tuesday and Texas, you are one big Super Tuesday,” Klobuchar said. “But there are Super Tuesday states including my home state of Minnesota. So what I want you all to do is vote for Joe. Vote for decency, vote for dignity, vote for a heart for our country.”
Newsweek reached out to Klobuchar for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
“I can’t tell you how much the senator’s endorsement means to me,” Biden said. “Amy knows how to get things done. That’s why Amy has never lost, and she’s not losing now. You’re going to hear a lot from Amy Klobuchar for a long long time.”
Biden won the South Carolina primary with 48.4 percent of the vote, his first victory in the Democratic primary election cycle.
Klobuchar’s endorsement of Biden may indicate the Democratic Party’s hope that a moderate candidate such as Biden may serve as the party’s best chance to defeat incumbent President Donald Trump. Her support of Biden comes on the eve of Super Tuesday when 14 states cast their votes in the Democratic primaries.
Biden also publicly thanked former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg for his endorsement. Buttigieg appeared with Biden at a Texas campaign stop on Monday.
“I’m looking for a leader,” Buttigieg said. “I’m looking for a president who will draw out what is best in each of us and I’m encouraging everybody who was part of my campaign to join me because we have found that leader in Vice President, soon to be President, Joe Biden.”
Biden compared Buttigieg to his late son, Beau, who passed away as the result of a brain tumor in 2015.
“I’d look over at Pete during the debates and I’d think, you know, ‘That’s a Beau,’” Biden said, “because he has such enormous character, such intellectual capacity and such a commitment to other people.”
“I promise you,” Biden added, “you’re going to end up over your lifetime seeing a hell of a lot more of Pete than you are me.”
Biden’s main Democratic opponent appears to be Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a frontrunner in the Democratic race who has described himself as a democratic socialist. Sanders’ progressive platform includes support for the environmentally-based New Green Deal, health care reform under the Medicare for All bill and a mandatory $15 minimum wage.
