Deval Patrick, a former Massachusetts governor who jumped into the Democratic presidential primary months after most of his competitors did, has now ended that bid.

Patrick announced his decision on Wednesday, a day after the New Hampshire primary.

The vote in New Hampshire last night was not enough for us to create the practical wind at the campaign's back to go on to the next round of voting. So I have decided to suspend the campaign, effective immediately, he said in a statement.

The 63-year-old joined the Democratic field in November 2019, reversing an earlier decision. In December 2018, Patrick had opted against a run, citing "the cruelty of our elections process" and his wife's diagnosis of uterine cancer.

Patrick's entrance into the crowded primary field seemed to indicate unease among Democrats with the large group of candidates, and Patrick, a gifted campaigner who is close to former President Barack Obama, cast himself as a leader who could unify the party and bring opposing coalitions together.

He also leaned into his inspiring life story, rising from his youth in Chicago to become one of only two African American men elected governor.

But Patrick, who admitted his late-entry campaign was a "Hail Mary from two stadiums over," began his campaign with comparably low name recognition and never gained traction in polls. He earned less than 1% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, despite leading next-door Massachusetts for two terms as governor and receiving a boost on the airwaves from a pro-Patrick superPAC.

Patrick had also sought to compete in South Carolina, where African American voters make up a majority of the Democratic electorate.

Patrick's departure from the race leaves eight candidates still running for the party's presidential nomination. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is the only one who is not white.

Positioning himself closer to the center-left among the Democratic presidential candidates, Patrick outlined a series of broad policy agendas, including a "democracy agenda" and an "opportunity agenda" that sought universal prekindergarten among other measures. He also favored a "public option" expansion of Medicare.

"Patriotism demands, now more than ever, that we reject false choices," Patrick said in his statement Wednesday. "Despite our righteous anger, Democrats don't have to hate Republicans to be good Democrats. We don't have to hate business to fight for social justice or to hate police to believe black lives matter. In that same spirit, we don't have to hate moderation to be a good progressive. I say that because, unlike most other candidates, I have actually delivered progressive results using a moderate approach."

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Joins the 2020 Presidential Campaign...

Mr. Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor, entered the Democratic primary with less than three months to go before the Iowa caucuses.

mThere is almost no campaign staff or ground operation. Some volunteers mobilized on one day's notice. The announcement video was not finished until the middle of the night, and an email with instructions for Day 1 was sent to a small inner circle at 2:48 a.m.

It may not have been pretty, but former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts began a self-acknowledged long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday, filing paperwork for the primary here less than three months before the votes will be cast.

"I recognize running for president is a Hail Mary under any circumstances," Mr. Patrick told reporters at the New Hampshire state house. "This is a Hail Mary from two stadiums over."

Mr. Patrick's entry comes as former New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is also poised to join the field, developments that have jolted the race and highlighted the growing anxiety among some Democrats that the 18-person field is more rich in quantity than quality. nytimes

Deval Laurdine Patrick - born July 31, 1956

Deval Patrick is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st Governor of Massachusetts, from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who chose not to run for reelection to focus on his presidential campaign. He was reelected in 2010. He is the first African American elected Governor of Massachusetts. A Democrat, Patrick served from 1994 to 1997 as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division under President Bill Clinton. He is a candidate for President of the United States in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Raised largely by a single mother on the South Side of Chicago, Patrick earned a scholarship to Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts in the eighth grade. He went on to attend Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. After graduating, he practiced law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and later joined a Boston law firm, where he was named a partner at age 34. In 1994, Bill Clinton appointed him as the United States assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the United States Department of Justice, where he worked on issues including racial profiling and police misconduct.

During his governorship, Patrick oversaw the implementation of the state's 2006 health care reform program which had been enacted under Mitt Romney, increased funding to education and life sciences, won a federal Race to the Top education grant, passed an overhaul of governance of the state transportation function, signing a law to create the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, increased the state sales tax from 5% to 6.25%, raised the state's minimum wage from $8 per hour to $11 by 2017, and planned the introduction of casinos to the state. Under Patrick, Massachusetts joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Shortly after Patrick's second term began on January 6, 2011, he declared he would not seek re-election in 2014c

Patrick is a managing director at Bain Capital and serves as the chairman of the board for Our Generation Speaks, a fellowship program and startup incubator whose mission to bring together young Israeli and Palestinian leaders through entrepreneurship.[4] He also holds a Board of Directors position at Telehealth company American Well.

Members of his own inner circle and Barack Obama's inner circle encouraged Patrick to run for president in 2020, but Patrick ruled out a 2020 presidential bid in December 2018. In November 2019, however, uneasy about the existing field of Democratic candidates, Patrick was reported to have called several leading Democrats and allies to say that he would soon announce a 2020 presidential bid. He formally entered the race on November 14, 2019.