US Democratic battle narrows as Deval Patrick bows out

Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick announced Wednesday he was giving up his fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, marking the departure of the last African-American left in the once-crowded field.

Patrick threw in the towel after doing poorly in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, the second state contest in the battle to become the Democrats' pick to challenge President Donald Trump in November.

His exit came a day after Asian-American entrepreneur Andrew Yang quit the race, leaving only one person of non-white ethnicity left in the Democratic field, part-Samoan Tulsi Gabbard, a congresswoman from Hawaii.

"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," Deval said in a statement.

"So I have decided to suspend the campaign, effective immediately." The original field of 28 Democratic hopefuls included seven from ethnic minorities.

But well-known black politicians Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Cory Booker, and Latino Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, dropped out ahead of last week's first test, the Iowa caucuses.

Eight candidates remain in the race: Gabbard; former vice president Joe Biden; Senators Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Bernie Sanders; former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg; former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and hedge fund investor Tom Steyer.