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First Democratic Candidate for 2020 Nomination Drops Out of Race

VOA News

   The race for the Democratic nomination for president has only recently
   begun, yet the first candidate has already dropped out of the contest.
   Eric Swalwell, a U.S. congressman representing a district in
   California, announced Monday that he will not continue to seek the
   presidential nomination but will instead run for a fifth term in the
   U.S. House of Representatives.
   "Today ends our presidential campaign, but it is the beginning of an
   opportunity in Congress," he said during a news conference in his East
   Bay congressional district.
   Swalwell was a long-shot candidate in a crowded field of more than 20
   vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and he had
   languished near the bottom of the polls since he entered the race in
   April.
   The congressman tried to raise his profile at the June debate in Miami
   by forcefully calling on front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden
   to "pass the torch" to a younger generation. While the moment received
   media coverage following the debate, it failed to improve Swalwell's
   poll numbers.
   Swalwell, 38, was one of the younger candidates in the race, along with
   Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Representative
   Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, both of whom are 37.
   Swalwell has represented northern California in the U.S. Congress since
   2012 and has used his seat on the House Intelligence Committee to
   become frequent cable-news guest talking about the investigation
   between the Trump campaign and Russia.
   The congressman said tackling gun violence and fixing the student debt
   crisis were two of the issues that compelled him to run for the
   presidential nomination.