American politician Ronald Dion DeSantis has been Florida’s 46th governor since 2019. He was a Republican who served as the 6th congressional district representative for Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018 and was vying for the party’s nomination.
DeSantis declared that he was dropping out of the race for president and supporting Donald Trump in a video that was uploaded to his X account on Sunday, January 21.
He entered the Republican presidential primary as Trump’s greatest threat. His announcement comes after a disappointing second-place finish in last week’s Iowa Republican caucuses.
“If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome—more campaign stops, more interviews—I would do it, but I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign,” he said.
The conservative lawmaker said that he didn’t “have a clear path to victory” when announcing the end of his campaign, leaving Nikki Haley as Trump’s only rival.
As he ended his seven-month campaign, he said, “If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome—more campaign stops, more interviews—I would do it.”
He added that he was endorsing Mr. Trump because it had “become clear” that “a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance.”
The Florida governor had spent the bulk of his time and resources in recent months campaigning in all 99 of the state’s counties and courting its conservative evangelical voters, which made it difficult to sell his loss to Mr. Trump as a win.
His departure from the race allows Mr. DeSantis to avoid a potentially further embarrassing third-place finish in New Hampshire for Nimarata Nikki Haley, who has focused far more of her resources in the state.
The 2024 presidential candidate campaign has left Haley and Donald Trump as the last two candidates vying for the Republican nomination.