ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Veteran Tampa Democratic strategist Bryan Farris says he went through a gamut of emotions when he learned Sunday night that his candidate for president – Pete Buttigieg – was dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination just weeks after his strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.

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“I was shocked. Saddened. Devastated. You pick the adjective,” Farris said Monday afternoon.

The choice for Florida Democrats and Democratic voters in 46 other states has been reduced in the past 48 hours, with both Buttigieg and Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar suspending their campaigns following Joe Biden’s big victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday night.

While disappointed, Farris says he’s OK with Buttigieg withdrawing from the race if it helps consolidate the field behind Biden, because he says flat out that “we gotta stop Bernie,” referring to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who continues to lead in delegates going into Super Tuesday, the biggest night of the election cycle. 

“He just can’t beat Trump. There’s just no way,” Farris says in regards to Sanders, the self-avowed Democratic Socialist who Farris fears would kill any chance that the Democrats could retake the U.S. Senate.

"It was a brave decision"

Seminole Heights activist Michelle Cookson says she has never worked as hard and in such depth for a political candidate as she has for Buttigieg.

“This is a truly historic and incredibly important campaign, and it inspired me in a way I have never experienced before, and gave me hope again,” Cookson said Monday. “And for that, I am eternally grateful.”

“I think Pete still had a chance but decided to put the country first,” adds Tampa based Buttigieg supporter Katie Hodges. “His goal was to win the era for the American people, not make a name for himself. It was a brave decision and I admire him even more for making it. “

“Way back in May 2019, when he was still considered the longest of long shots, I took a job with Pete Buttigieg because I found him to be a man of warmth, substance and integrity," said Samantha Pollara, Florida Regional Investment Director for the Buttigieg campaign, in a text message. "His decision to set his own ego aside for the greater good of the Democratic Party and this country validates all the reasons I went to work for him in the first place.”

While Amy Klobuchar's delegate count failed to reach double digits in the first three contests of the 2020 Democratic election cycle — she earned seven delegates total, six of which came from her third-place finish in New Hampshire — she was the darling of a group of Iowa residents who spend their winters in the Tampa Bay area.

At the first ever satellite Iowa Caucus held in St. Petersburg last month, Klobuchar won the support of 48 of the 103 Democrats who participated in the caucus.

Donna Winter was part of that group of Klobuchar supporters. Contacted this afternoon as she drove back to her home in Iowa, Winter (who also organized the caucus) said she, too, was surprised and saddened to learn that Klobuchar was calling it quits, thinking that she would at least wait until after she competed in her home state of Minnesota on Tuesday night.

“I’ve not listened to any news people, but I’m sure it’s probably so that the moderates - which I am - and a lot of Democrats can consolidate around one candidate and not have a socialist win the nomination,” said Winter.  “So in a sense, that’s good.”

Consolidation behind Biden a good thing?

Winter says she thought Klobuchar had the right stuff to become a great president, but she says she has no problem getting behind Biden now, who she says finally looks fired up after his victory in South Carolina over the weekend.

"It's like his spirt was reborn," she says of the former Vice President's energy level going into the Palmetto State's primary, a state where analysts said a less than robust showing could have ended his presidential aspirations.

"Seeing him in Iowa, he just seemed tired," Winter said. "In South Carolina, he had it."

However, the consolidation of support behind Joe Biden to head off Sanders is troubling to Kofi Hunt, a volunteer supporter for the Sanders campaign based in St. Petersburg. 

"The Democratic Party has to decide what's more important: beating Bernie or beating Trump," he says. "Hillary (Clinton) didn't lose because she was too progressive. She lost because she didn't appeal to enough people in blue states," he says. 

Hundreds of thousands of Floridians have already voted in the March 17 primary, where Buttigieg and Klobuchar will remain on the ballot, though they're no longer in the race for president.