Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended his campaign for president on Sunday and endorsed the race’s front-runner, Donald J. Trump, as the primary race in New Hampshire enters its final 48 hours. The move cements the Republican primary as a two-person race, a little less than a week after DeSantis’s devastating 30-percentage-point loss to former President Donald J. Trump in Iowa.
Quick Read
- DeSantis Suspends Presidential Campaign: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspends his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, endorsing front-runner Donald Trump.
- Endorsement Ahead of New Hampshire Primary: The endorsement comes two days before the New Hampshire primary, transforming the GOP race into a two-person contest.
- Impact of Iowa Caucuses Loss: DeSantis’s decision follows a significant 30-percentage-point loss to Trump in the Iowa caucuses.
- Campaign Challenges and Setbacks: DeSantis’s campaign faced numerous difficulties, including diminishing poll numbers, financial strains, and operational issues.
- Trump’s Dominance in GOP Race: Trump’s strong showing in early primaries and continued support from the Republican base underscore his dominance in the race.
- Embarrassments and Technical Issues: DeSantis’s campaign was marred by various embarrassments, including a problematic campaign launch and public gaffes.
- Shift in Political Fortunes: Despite early advantages and high expectations, DeSantis’s presidential bid struggled against the realities of the 2024 political landscape.
- Future of DeSantis’s Political Career: With his presidential bid suspended and term limits as Florida governor, questions arise about DeSantis’s political future.
- Trump’s Response to DeSantis Exiting Race: Trump had already begun referring to DeSantis’s campaign in the past tense, signaling confidence in his primary position.
The Associated Press has the story:
Ron DeSantis ends his presidential bid and endorses Donald Trump
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP) —
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his Republican presidential campaign Sunday on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, ending a White House bid that failed to meet expectations that he would emerge as a serious challenger to former President Donald Trump.
DeSantis announced his decision in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
DeSantis suspended his campaign for president on Sunday, just two days before the New Hampshire primary election, and endorsed former President Donald J. Trump.
It marked a spectacular implosion for a candidate once seen as having the best chance to dethrone Trump as the Republican Party’s nominee in 2024.
But DeSantis’s devastating 30-percentage-point loss to Trump in the Iowa caucuses last Monday had left him facing a daunting question: Why keep going? On Sunday, he provided his answer, acknowledging there was no point in soldiering on.
“I am today suspending my campaign,”DeSantis said in a video posted after The New York Times reported he was expected to leave the race. He added: “Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear.”
DeSantis flew home to Tallahassee late Saturday after campaigning in South Carolina. He had been expected to appear at a campaign event in New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon, but one person familiar with the matter said that was no longer the case.
After announcing his run for president in May, DeSantis’s campaign proved a costly flop, spending tens of millions of dollars in concert with well-funded outside groups to little apparent effect.
Constant mockery from Trump — about everything from DeSantis’s facial expressions to his choice of footwear — degraded his image as a confident conservative warrior. Over the course of the campaign, DeSantis’s national poll numbers fell by roughly half, a seeming indictment of both his skills as a candidate and his strategy of trying to run to Trump’s right. A vaunted ground game paid for by his super PAC, Never Back Down, hardly seemed to make a dent in the race.
At points, it felt as if DeSantis was careening from one embarrassment to the next, as his campaign dealt with setbacks like mass layoffs and the fallout from producing a social media video that featured a Nazi symbol.
In Iowa, his brash promise to win proved empty. Instead, he barely beat former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, whose more moderate image seemed a poor fit for the state’s socially conservative Republicans. Pouring resources into Iowa starved DeSantis’s efforts in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two of the other early nominating states, where his poll numbers cratered. His loss of support from both voters and donors meant that there was little point in continuing on to more inevitable defeats.
While he had started the year leading Trump in New Hampshire, polls now showed DeSantis in a distant third place, drawing around 6 percent of the vote.
Chaos marked the last days of his campaign, just as it had the first, when he kicked off his campaign with a widely mocked and technically marred livestream event on Twitter. Over the weekend, DeSantis’s schedule was in constant flux, as he flew between New Hampshire and South Carolina with little notice, postponing events and finally canceling his appearances on the Sunday morning political shows.
Last week, DeSantis had started signaling that he might be looking to exit the race, casting his eyes forward to the 2028 election and conceding that Trump had won an overwhelming victory in Iowa.
Both DeSantis and his allies seemed to be running perilously low on money. No pro-DeSantis ad had run on New Hampshire television since before Thanksgiving.
Even before DeSantis made his announcement, Mr. Trump had begun speaking about his candidacy in the past tense. “May he rest in peace,” Trump said of DeSantis at a Saturday evening rally in Manchester.
The ambitious big-state governor entered the 2024 presidential contest with major advantages in his quest to take on Trump, and early primary polls suggested DeSantis was in a strong position to do just that. He and his allies amassed a political fortune well in excess of $100 million, and he boasted a significant legislative record on issues important to many conservatives, like abortion and the teaching of race and gender issues in schools.
Such advantages did not survive the reality of presidential politics in 2024. From a high-profile announcement that was plagued by technical glitches to constant upheavals to his staff and campaign strategy, DeSantis struggled to find his footing in the primary. He lost the Iowa caucuses — which he had vowed to win — by 30 percentage points to Trump.
And now, DeSantis’ political future is in question after suspending his presidential bid after just one voting contest. The 45-year-old is term limited as Florida governor.
