Ron DeSantis, a former naval officer, was elected in 2018 as governor in Florida (File)
Washington:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was as soon as the main Republican rival to Donald Trump, ended his election marketing campaign on Sunday and threw his assist behind the previous president.
DeSantis’s withdrawal, after months of weakening assist, leaves solely low-polling Nikki Haley standing between Trump and the nomination because the Republican Celebration’s candidate for the US presidential election in November.
“Success is just not closing, failure is just not deadly: it’s the braveness to proceed that counts.”
– Winston Churchill pic.twitter.com/ECoR8YeiMm
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 21, 2024
In a video message, DeSantis stated that following his second place end final week within the Iowa caucuses he couldn’t ”ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their assets if we do not have a transparent path to victory. Accordingly, I’m as we speak suspending my marketing campaign.”
The choice got here lower than two days earlier than the New Hampshire main, the place polls confirmed him far behind front-runner Trump and former UN ambassador Haley.
”It is clear to me {that a} majority of Republican main voters need to give Donald Trump one other probability,” DeSantis stated, noting he has had variations with the previous president, notably over the coronavirus pandemic.
”He has my endorsement as a result of we won’t return to the outdated Republican guard of yesteryear or (a) repackaged type of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”
Trump clinched to victory in Iowa final Tuesday, with 51 % of Republican voters selecting the twice-impeached former president over DeSantis, who gained solely 21 %, and Haley at 19 %.
No candidate has ever misplaced the race after claiming the primary two states, and Trump would virtually actually declare the Republican nomination over with a win in New Hampshire.
’One fella and one girl’
Many Republicans had pinned their hopes on DeSantis, who at simply 45 was embraced by some as a rising star of proper.
However his candidacy, introduced on the finish of Could, struggled to determine itself as a risk to Trump, 77.
DeSantis, a former naval officer, was elected in 2018 as governor in Florida after receiving the precious endorsement of Trump.
Since then, he typically distanced himself from Trump and gained notoriety for a collection of hard-right stances on schooling, immigration and LGBTQ points.
DeSantis appeared virtually every day within the nationwide media to lock horns within the cultural wars towards ”woke” politicians, companies and professors he accuses of forcing their progressive ideology on Individuals.
His most headline-grabbing initiatives have included permitting Floridians to hold hid weapons with no allow and imposing one of many nation’s most restrictive abortion legal guidelines.
Forward of the New Hampshire vote on Tuesday, Haley had largely avoided hitting out at Trump, however she has begun questioning his psychological acuity, making comparisons between him and the 81-year-old incumbent Democrat Joe Biden.
At an occasion in Seabrook, New Hampshire, she stated DeSantis ”ran an awesome race, he is been a superb governor, and we want him nicely.”
”Having stated that, it is now one fella and one girl,” she continued.
”This comes right down to ’what would you like.’ Would you like extra of the identical or would you like one thing new?”
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)