Pete Buttigieg, the former South Bend pulled out of the Presidential race Sunday night as he formally announced the end of his campaign in an event in South Bend, where the once unknown mayor said “today is a moment of truth… the truth is the path has narrowed to a close, for our candidacy, if not for our cause.”

“So, we must recognize that at this point in the race the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideas is to step aside and help bring our party and our country together. So, tonight, I am making the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the presidency,” Buttigieg said.

“We have a responsibility to concede the effect of remaining in this race any further. Our goal has always been to help unify Americans to defeat Donald Trump and to sin the era for our values,” the former mayor from South Bend added.

Buttigieg’s historic run broke barriers as he became the first openly gay man to launch a competitive campaign for White House and was also the first gay candidate to bag primary delegates for Presidential nomination through a major party.

After garnering success and building momentum in Iowa and New Hampshire, Buttigieg struggled to woe the voters of color, a stronghold for the Democratic Party hurting his campaign in South Carolina and Nevada as he considerably lagged the frontrunners. The mayor was scheduled to fly from Selma to Dallas on Sunday but amid the flight he informed reporters that he would be flying back to his hometown in Indiana to announce his retirement from the race.

According to aides, Buttigieg decided to drop his campaign following the poor results in South Carolina and had not much left to succeed on Super Tuesday.

“He believes this is the right thing to do right now for our country and the country to heal this divided nation and defeat President Trump,” the aide said.

“He decided that now wa the time and I, think that is exactly why he is getting out. He believes this is the right thing to do.”

The proud gay campaigner did not endorse any of his former competitors specifically on Sunday night and instead took the moment to praise all of the contestants for demonstrating what public service can be.”

Obama administration VP Joe Biden and Buttigieg have not yet formally connected but the two have exchanged voicemails today, a Biden aide informed Cable News Network. Another source familiar with the development told CNN that there has been communication between the two candidates and staff-level tonight.

Buttigieg closed his campaign on Sunday acknowledging that he had not left much in race and conceding the defeat.

“He studied the math,” a top Democrat familiar with the Buttigieg campaign said. “He knew there wasn’t a path forward.”

Buttigieg had already sensed what was coming when the warned the supporters against nominating Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and supporting his inflexible, ideological revolution. His campaign released a memo days later worrying that the social democrat could enjoy a “seemingly insurmountable delegate lead” after the Super Tuesday contests. And results were pretty much as predicted and feared as Buttigieg didn’t make it to Super Tuesday in the end.

“I know that as this campaign ends, there comes disappointment that we won’t continue,” Buttigieg said, nodding to his future. “But I hope that everyone who has been part of this in any way knows that the campaign that you have built and the community that you have created is only the beginning of the change that we are going to make together,” the former South Bend mayor added while addressing a host of his supporters who responded his announcement by chanting “2024, 2024, 2024”.