Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for president on Sunday, saying in a video posted on X that he didn’t see “a clear path to victory” in light of his poor showing in the Iowa caucuses, and endorsed Donald Trump in the election.
“Nobody worked harder, and we left it all out on the field. Now, following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on the way forward. If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome — more campaign stops, more interviews — I would do it,” DeSantis said.
“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.
Of the former president, whose endorsement of him in 2018 helped propel DeSantis into the Florida Governor’s Mansion but whom he has criticized while campaigning over the past eight months, the governor said he was bowing to the will of most Republican voters.
“They watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance and they see Democrats using lawfare this day to attack him. While I have disagreements with Donald Trump, including on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear,” DeSantis said.
He noted that he had signed a pledge to support the party’s eventual nominee, “and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repacked form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”
Despite an all-out campaign in Iowa, including stops in each of its 99 counties, DeSantis finished on caucus night with a disappointing 21.2% of the vote, nearly 30 points behind Trump. Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration, finished in third place with 19.1%.
Sunday’s announcement came two days before the New Hampshire GOP primary, where Trump was leading with 48.9% support, with Haley second with 34.2% and DeSantis trailing with 5.2%, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average on Sunday.
Haley, speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire, said she wished DeSantis well and noted the Republican presidential primary is now just her and Trump.
“There were 14 people in this race. There were a lot of fellas. All the fellas are out, except for this one,” she said, according to a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “And this comes down to what do you want: Do you want more of the same or do you want something new?”
Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, posted on social media that all GOP lawmakers should line up behind Trump.
“Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee,” Daines wrote. “I am encouraging every Republican to unite behind him because it will take all of us to defeat Joe Biden, take back the Senate, and hold the House.”
Virginia Rep. Bob Good, chairman of the U.S. House Freedom Caucus, posted on social media that he’s now supporting Trump for president.
“It is my privilege to provide my complete and total endorsement for Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States,” Good wrote. “President Trump was the greatest President of my lifetime, and we need him to reinstate the policies that were working so well for America.”
–Michael Moline, Florida Phoenix, and its Washington, D.C., bureau
Atwp says
Thank God, he is out.
Local says
DeSantis is aiming for a prominent Cabinet posting, no doubt. Not necessarily now but when he needs to transition back into the public spotlight in advance of the next presidential race.
Also no doubt, he will stay on as Governor so he can use our tax dollars and his time to continue building a national campaign. I feel cheated that he used us as taxpayers and citizens to subsidize his presidential run.
Thomas Hutson says
DeSantis Drops Out
AHHHhh!! say its not so, Baby Mussolini, Part Time Governor, Commander of the Florida Guard/Militia dropping out of the race for President. Oh well, as “WALTER would say “WHO THE HELL CARES”?
Now bobble Head can come back to his day time job, the one his “MINIONS in Tallahassee” saved for him. Do you think they knew he would be back needing a job?
Well, they can now give him a pacifier, let him cry and sulk in the corner for a while, watch him beg his surrogate daddy for forgiveness hoping he will forgive and forget all the nasty thing he said about him. Hey he might have pity and give him a job, maybe even offer condolences for his loss. NOT!
Let’s all send a message to his surrogate daddy encouraging him to PLEASE give Baby Mussolini a job if you win, any job, just get him out of FLORIDA.
troy says
14 years ago today Citizen United was passed. Billionaires get who they want. What a farce.
Pogo says
@As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=newspeak
JP says
Now he’s going to write himself a law so he can run for another consecutive term for governor. I’d put money on it.
Jim says
Well, it couldn’t have happened to a finer guy.
Never Back Down has Backed Down…..
Anyone paying attention had to know from the beginning that he couldn’t make it on the big stage. If only he’d been paying attention!
Well, he can go back to being governor again although I must admit he hasn’t been missed to maybe that’s going to be a bad thing…
Let’s get back to chasing criminal trans students, banning dictionaries, encyclopedias and all those other nasty books. Maybe think up another “issue” to distract the MAGA gang from any fact-based thinking… I’m sure he’ll think of something.
Welcome back, Ronny-boy. We never missed ya!!! I will say Ron being out does make America a little greater again!
marlee says
“We are in for it…Florida”…..!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Taking the stage this week at a wedding venue and winery alongside an icy pond, Ron DeSantis reminded New Hampshire voters how, as Florida’s governor, he had “beat the far left on issue after issue after issue:” on COVID-19 mandates, on education policy, on crime.
dave says
I guess DeSantis is a true suck up. Endorsing a man that called you publicly ” DeSantis both in public and privately as “overrated, disloyal, and a know-nothing,”
And my fav Ron DeSanctimonious , and we have trump saying ““I would say that when it comes to lack of personality, Ron would be in a class with Asa Hutchinson, and that’s not good.”
In yet another Truth Social post last May, Trump decreed that DeSantis was in desperate need of a personality transplant “and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet.”
After DeSantis mentioned the Stormy Daniels affair at a press conference, Trump’s homophobic response was to challenge his sexuality—and insinuate that he might have preyed on some of his underage students. “Ron DeSanctimonious will probably find out about FALSE ACCUSATIONS & FAKE STORIES sometime in the future, as he gets older, wiser, and better known, when he’s unfairly and illegally attacked by a woman, even classmates that are ‘underage’ (or possibly a man!),” Trump fumed on Truth Social. “I’m sure he will want to fight these misfits just like I do!”
“Ron came to me in desperate shape in 2017—he was politically dead, losing in a landslide…” Trump recalled. “Ron had low approval, bad polls, and no money, but he said that if I would Endorse him, he could win.”
In all of this and a lot more, Ron DeSanstis still endorses Trump. Maybe a Trump spokesman had it right ““Not surprised Ron DeSantis is looking for a set of balls.”
The dude says
Nice selection, but this may be more apropos of Meatball Ron…
https://youtu.be/aDFGmiXnLjU?si=7EFtZO69S57uTFt_
The dude says
Meatball and his sexy little boots will not be allowed to retire to Florida until he makes the requisite appearance on stage next to the great MAGA king, where he will be photographed with the great orange lump giving him his “I own you” look. Just like Vivek had to, and Nikki will have to eventually.
It isn’t about the policy with MAGA voters, it’s about the cruelty.
Pogo says
@The dude
Agreed. And thank you.
Personally, I just love Holst, when paired with a circumstance, and/or occasion– even though I’m an “old” who listens to everything.
TR says
How much you willing to put down?
c says
Context can be a friend.
January 21, 2020 will mark a decade since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a controversial decision that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained#What%20Was%20Citizens%20United%20About?
c says
@JP ;
To be honest, I was sincerely worried that in the remote event that DeSanctimonious had actually WON the Presidential election, then the ‘in-my-pocket’ Florida Legislature would have passed laws to allow him to remain Governor WHILE being President.
I was told that I was being ridiculous, and that it would never be allowed …. But I live in 2024, not the 20th century., and the old standards of decency and ethics are dead.