After failing to qualify in the third Democratic debate for the 2020 Presidential nomination, Bill de Blasio has ended his campaign.

Announcing on Friday, September 20th, the mayor of New York relayed in an interview with MSNBC that he would no longer be continuing in the race for Democratic nominee. 

De Blasio is the seventh candidate to drop out, following Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Seth Moulton, Sen. Jay Inslee, Rep. Eric Swallwell, former Sen. Richard Ojeda and former Gov. John Hickenlooper. The Democratic primary has been a packed field, with nineteen candidates actively running, but only ten qualifying for the third round of debates, this past month. 

The Democratic primary has been a closely watched race since candidates starting announcing their campaigns early. After the third debate, where only 10 of those running had qualified, many reflected that candidates who had been dominating the polls did not deliver, while others who had been in the background rose to the forefront of discussions. 

Overwhelmingly, most pollsters, like a recent FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll, find that voters are worried about a candidates “ability to defeat Trump” than any other issue. For this reason, Joe Biden, a seasoned politician and former Vice President had been dominating polls. After the debates this summer however, where he was confronted with former decisions he made while in office, others have been able to step into the limelight. Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend Indiana, Kamala Harris, a senator and former prosecutor, and Beto O’Rourke, a former congressman, have been gaining supporters steadily. 

There is a long time to go until voters fill out their ballots, and everyday new information is released, debated, and dismissed about candidates and their policies. As the Republican primary begins to heat up, following President Trump’s announcement he is running for reelection, there remains many possibilities and unknown variables in the 2020 election.