Democratic Race Thins Out by 2

The Democratic field is a little smaller Monday morning. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock and former Pennsylvania congressman Joe Sestak dropped their bids, report Politico and the AP. Neither rose high enough in national polls of late to qualify for the debates. Bullock pitched himself as a moderate who could win a red state, notes Politico, but it wasn't enough. “While there were many obstacles we could not have anticipated when entering this race, it has become clear that in this moment, I won’t be able to break through to the top tier of this still-crowded field of candidates,” the governor said in a statement.

As for Sestak, he hoped his stint as a Navy admiral would boost his candidacy, but he, too, failed to resonate with voters. "Without the privilege of national press, it is unfair to ask others to husband their resolve and to sacrifice resources any longer," he said in his statement. Their departures still leave more than a dozen candidates in the Democratic race, notes CNN.

(More Joe Sestak 2020 stories.)