Buttigieg cancels today’s Florida trip, cites illness

Pete Buttigieg has canceled a scheduled trip to Miami Wednesday.

Buttigieg had planned to hold fundraisers and “community conversations” in Wellington in Palm Beach County and in Miami-Dade. But his campaign says he is too sick to come down to Florida after appearing Tuesday evening in the 10th Democratic presidential debate.

The trip would have included his first public appearances in South Florida since August. His husband, Chasten Buttigieg, came to the state in September.

Buttigieg is currently second in the delegate chase to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. He is polling behind Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg and Sanders both nationally and in Florida.

His campaign, however, suggested in a memo obtained by NBC News and other media outlets Tuesday that Florida’s March 17 primary could be a critical contest for Buttigieg as he looks to remain a viable alternative to the front-running Sanders.

“Our goal is to minimize Sanders’ margins on Super Tuesday and rack up delegates in the March 10th and March 17th contests, which are much more favorable to us,” the memo states.

The memo also states that Buttigieg needs to raise $13 million before March 3 to execute his strategy.

Florida voters are already casting ballots by mail. Roughly 250,000 Democrats have already voted in the primary. Early voting begins March 2.