Super Tuesday voting revealed that moderate Democrats across the country seem ready to embrace a strategy of getting behind one candidate to seek the party nomination for president. It was a strategy that began rolling on Sunday, when three moderate Democrats –including openly gay hopeful Pete Buttigieg— dropped out of the campaign for the nomination and Buttigieg and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar threw their support to former Vice President Joe Biden.

As of midnight, Biden had won the popular vote in eight of the 14 Super Tuesday states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Virginia. Sanders won Colorado, Utah, and his home state of Vermont.

At midnight, the Associated Press and the New York Times indicated they believe Sanders will win California, which holds the lion’s share of delegates (415). The New York Times and others said Biden appeared to be winning Texas (with 228 delegates) and Maine (with 24).

The strongest evidence for the get-behind-one-moderate strategy was Massachusetts –home state of presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren, neighboring state of presumed frontrunner Bernie Sanders, and native state of billionaire former Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Massachusetts voted for Biden.

Biden surged from poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire to the leader of the pack following the South Carolina primary, overtaking Sanders in the delegate count. And Super Tuesday’s voting was a blow to Sanders, who had been leading in many polls and was expected to win a perhaps insurmountable lead in the delegate count. Instead, at deadline, he was trailing Biden.

The final count on who won how many delegates in the Super Tuesday primaries won’t be known for several days, largely due to California allowing voters to put their ballots in the mail on primary day.

Information about the LGBT community –endorsements, donations, and informal polls– suggested its vote was split between Buttigieg and Warren. But Buttigieg and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar withdrew Sunday after the South Carolina primary. Businessman Tom Steyer withdrew on Saturday night.

And Monday, Buttigieg and Klobuchar endorsed Biden.

Buttigieg told a small crowd in Dallas prior to a Biden campaign rally that the goal of his campaign had always been “much bigger than me becoming president.” Buttigieg praised Biden as bringing back the “politics of decency” and having a record of “delivering” action on some of the most important issues –“taking on the NRA, negotiating the Paris Climate Accord, shepherding through the Affordable Care Act.”

Biden thanked Buttigieg for his endorsement and paid him “the highest compliment I can give any man or woman.”

“He reminds me of my son, Beau,” said Biden, who was famously very close to his elder son, a veteran of the war in Iraq and Attorney General of Delaware. Beau Biden died of a brain tumor in May 2015, just as his father was considering a run for president. Biden said that, when he looked over at Buttigieg during the debates, he thought to himself, “That’s Beau.”

Biden said Buttigieg is a “man of enormous integrity,” who has “as much moral courage as he does physical courage.”

“There are a generation of leaders Pete’s age who have unlimited potential. If Pete had been around here another six years…I would be endorsing Pete.”

Later Monday evening, in an interview, CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Biden if he would consider Buttigieg and Klobuchar for roles in a Biden administration.

Biden said he thinks it is “important to bring along a new generation of politicians,” and that “there are a lot of things he could do in an administration if I’m the president.”

Interestingly, there has been speculation among various political observers that Buttigieg might be a vice presidential choice for Biden and openly lesbian U.S. Tammy Baldwin might be such a choice for Sanders.