Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is the first Democrat to drop out of the 2020 race.

Rumors of Swalwell dropping out of the race have swirled for some time now since the congressman has struggled to poll at even one percent against his more than 20 competitors.

At a press conference in Dublin, California on Monday afternoon, Swalwell did his best to frame the news in a good way. He said he is moving his energy from the presidential race to getting reelected to Congress.

“Being honest with ourselves, we had to look at how much money we were raising and where we were in the polls,” he said. “We have to be honest about our candidacy.”

He added, “Today ends our presidential campaign, but it is the beginning of a new opportunity in Congress.”

Swalwell did not endorse any of his competitors. Asked whom he would endorse, he jokingly said, “If Megan Rapinoe gets in the race, I’ll probably endorse her,” referencing the U.S. Women’s National Team soccer star who has made anti-Trump statements recently.

Swalwell leaving the race was all but guaranteed when he recently canceled an Independence Day event in New Hampshire.

Even with Swalwell out of the race, there are still a whopping 24 Democrats battling it out to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency in 2020. Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are all considered frontrunners and are polling well at the moment.

Swalwell may not have put up much of a fight, but his presidential campaign should truly be studied by people looking to get into politics because the congressman practically wrote the book on what not to do when running for office. He made Biden’s many gaffes look like child’s play.

His one standout moment came during the first Democratic debate when he recalled seeing Joe Biden when he was just six years old. Swalwell recalled Biden telling the gathered crowd at the time that it was time to “pass the torch” of political power to a younger generation.

The 38-year-old Swalwell said Biden was “right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans.”

It was an odd attack move because going after someone’s age only alienates older-voting Americans, but Swalwell did it anyway — and he even managed to mess that up.

Biden, who is 76, responded by saying, “I’m still holding onto that torch,” and swatted Swalwell away like a fly. Imagine that. Swalwell was so bad in his first debate that he made Biden look competent. Amazing.

That was not Swalwell’s only misstep. He went viral several times for making odd references in his speeches or just plain pandering in the most obvious ways.

Here’s a video of Swalwell comparing Democrats to “The Avengers” and Republicans to “The Hunger Games.” It’s so much worse than it sounds:

Hard to believe this guy can’t get above zero percent, isn’t it? pic.twitter.com/q6G367jRIv

— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) June 22, 2019

Then there was the time he promised to be “bold without the bold.”

We know that you and the rest of America are going to miss the @ericswalwell campaign, so we collected the very tippy top moments of this journey so we can all go back and relive those nostalgic moments. pic.twitter.com/zhBlUufJu7

— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) July 8, 2019

Don’t take too much of a breather. While there’s no chance he’ll become president, this man is still a United States congressman. Let that sink in.

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Zachary Leeman

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Zachary Leeman is originally from Maine, he served in the United States Army Reserve for six years. He currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

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