By Press Association
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg has dropped out of the race to be the Democrats’ nominee for US president and has endorsed Joe Biden instead.
He made the decision after disappointing results in the Super Tuesday primaries.
Mr Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman, spent sums never before seen in political campaign history since entering the race in November.
The former New York major spent more than a half billion dollars on his campaign.
Millions of dollars went toward states like Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee – all three of which former vice president Joe Biden won easily on Tuesday, riding a wave after his decisive victory in South Carolina.
The 14 states that voted on Tuesday were the first in which Mr Bloomberg’s name appeared on the ballot, after he skipped the first four voting states.
It was an unorthodox strategy that has never worked before, yet the scale of the Bloomberg campaign spending was unprecedented.
“When you come in late to the game and you are someone who has a record, you can’t assume you can just wash that away with spending. You’re still gonna have to answer questions and you’re still gonna have to be vetted,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton aide.
In states like Virginia and Alabama, Mr Bloomberg’s massive ad spending did little to stop Mr Biden from seizing victory.
The onslaught of ads seemed unable to make up for the damage inflicted by his opponents – and his own poor performance – during his first primary debate, in Las Vegas last month.
There, nearly all his opponents hammered him over allegations he made sexist and crude comments to former employees and nondisclosure agreements that women who worked for his company had signed preventing them from speaking out.
