Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his Republican presidential marketing campaign on Sunday, ending his 2024 White Home bid simply earlier than the New Hampshire main whereas endorsing his bitter rival Donald Trump.
The timing of DeSantis’ announcement escalates the stress on former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, as the one main candidate left within the Republican nomination struggle, to win New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation main on Tuesday. Trump’s foes within the GOP lastly have the one-on-one contest they’ve looked for months.
“It’s clear to me {that a} majority of Republican main voters wish to give Donald Trump one other likelihood,” DeSantis mentioned in a video saying his choice to drop out of the race which he posted on X.
DeSantis additionally jabbed Haley, lengthy his closest competitors for second place within the main race, saying Republicans “can’t return to the previous Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged type of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”
Haley was campaigning in Seabrook, New Hampshire, when DeSantis introduced his choice.
“He ran a terrific race, he’s been governor, and we want him effectively,” she instructed a room full of supporters and media. “Having mentioned that, it’s now one fella and one girl left.“
DeSantis’ choice, whereas maybe not stunning given his 30-point blowout loss final week in Iowa, marks the tip of a rare decline for a high-profile governor as soon as considered a professional risk to Trump’s supremacy within the Republican Celebration.
He entered the 2024 presidential contest with main benefits in his quest to tackle Trump, and early main polls steered DeSantis was in a robust place to just do that. He and his allies amassed a political fortune effectively in extra of $130 million, and he boasted a major legislative file on points vital to many conservatives, like abortion and the educating of race and gender points in faculties.
Such benefits didn’t survive the truth of presidential politics in 2024. From a high-profile announcement that was suffering from technical glitches to fixed upheavals to his workers and marketing campaign technique, DeSantis struggled to seek out his footing within the main. He misplaced the Iowa caucuses — which he had vowed to win — by 30 share factors to Trump.
DeSantis’ allies mentioned that personal discussions started shortly after Iowa to resolve learn how to bow out of the race gracefully. They in the end determined that he wanted to endorse Trump, regardless of the deeply private feud between them.
“Whereas I’ve had disagreements with Donald Trump, resembling on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the present incumbent, Joe Biden. That’s clear,” mentioned DeSantis, who’s in his second and last time period as Florida’s governor, which ends in January 2027.
The endorsement was a shocking tail-between-his-legs second for DeSantis, whom Trump has mercilessly and relentlessly taunted in deeply private phrases for the higher a part of a yr now.
For Trump, whose workforce consists of many former DeSantis staffers, the assaults have usually felt extra like sport than political technique. Trump and his aides have blasted the governor as disloyal for operating within the first place, mocked his consuming habits and his persona and accused him of carrying excessive heels to spice up his peak.
DeSantis’ workforce joined Trump in attacking Haley as information of his departure rippled throughout the political panorama. Some doubt Haley, who was seen as splitting Republican votes and stopping a head-to-head match up between Trump, would profit from DeSantis’ choice.
“She won’t be the nominee,” key DeSantis supporter Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, instructed AP. “She won’t be the president of the US.”
Trump had already shifted his focus to Haley in latest weeks, however minutes after DeSantis’ announcement, the previous president’s marketing campaign launched a brand new memo highlighting the stress on Haley to win New Hampshire.
“Now that we’re a mere 48 hours from the first, the tone has shifted mightily. We see it, you see it, however make no mistake, if Nikki Haley loses in New Hampshire — there are solely two choices,” wrote senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles.
“Choice A: Nikki Haley drops out, unites behind President Trump, and commits to defeating Joe Biden,” they wrote. “Choice B: Nikki Haley prepares to be completely DEMOLISHED and EMBARASSED in her house state of South Carolina,” which votes on Feb. 24.
“Now, for some vital recommendation,” they continued. “Select correctly.”
