Tom Steyer.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Billionaire Tom Steyer's path to the presidency ended where he hoped it would really begin.

Steyer announced Saturday night that he's dropping out of the Democratic presidential race. He had his strongest primary performance Saturday in South Carolina, where he's on pace to finish in third place behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), but his aggressive campaigning in the state ultimately didn't achieve the results he was seeking.

With 86 percent of the vote in, Steyer has 11.4 percent support. "There's no question today that this campaign, we were disappointed with where we came out," he said. "But I said if I didn't see a path to winning that I'd suspend my campaign, and honestly I can't see a path where I win the presidency."

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He spent more time in South Carolina than any other candidate in the hopes of chipping away at Biden's base, which included the majority of the state's African American voters, but the vice president retained the support he needed to emerge victorious. Read more at NPR and CNN.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.