Buttigieg ‘Assessing at Every Turn’ After South Carolina Finish

(Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg said Sunday he’s assessing his candidacy “at every turn” but didn’t signal he planned to drop out of the 2020 Democratic primary race.

The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press” after a fourth-place finish in South Carolina on Saturday.

Buttigieg picked up no delegates from the state after gaining 8.2% support, and did especially poorly -- 3% -- among African-American voters, a key Democratic constituency.

“Every single day, we do a lot of math on this campaign,” Buttiegieg said, according to a transcript provided by the network.

“So we’ll be assessing at every turn, not only what the right answer is for the campaign, but making sure that every step we take is in the interest of the party and that goal of making sure we defeat Donald Trump.”

Another Democratic candidate who came up short in South Carolina, billionaire Tom Steyer, ended his bid Saturday night.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny

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