Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced on Sunday night he is suspending his presidential campaign.
Buttigieg told supporters in South Bend that he values the truth, and "the truth is, the path has narrowed to a close for our candidacy, if not for our cause." Buttigieg promised he will "do everything in my power to ensure we have a new Democratic president come January," and will work to "bring our party and our country together."
The United States, Buttigieg said, is "hungry for new politics," and his campaign found "countless Americans ready to support a middle class millennial mayor from the industrial Midwest not in spite of that experience, but because of it." Buttigieg also hopes that by becoming the first openly gay man to run for president, it sent a message "to every kid out there wondering if whatever marks them out as different means they are somehow destined to be less than, to see that someone who once felt that exact same way can become a leading American presidential candidate with his husband at his side."