(Jan 22): Ron DeSantis dropped out of the 2024 US presidential race on Sunday and endorsed front runner Donald Trump, narrowing the Republican field to two major candidates ahead of the closely watched New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

“He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear,” DeSantis said in a video released on Sunday on X, formerly Twitter. The Florida governor described Trump as the preferable alternative to President Joe Biden or Nikki Haley, the last remaining rival to Trump in the GOP primaries.

His exit from the race is a stunning blow to the political fortunes of a candidate who just two years ago won a second term as the governor in a landslide election and stepped onto the national stage heralded by big-dollar Republican donors as the future of the party.

New polling from CNN and the University of New Hampshire showed DeSantis earning just 6% of the state’s Republican vote, with Trump at 50% and Haley, the former South Carolina governor, at 39%.

“I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory,” DeSantis said in the video.

Trump said he was honoured by the endorsement, urging “all Republicans to rally behind” his candidacy and help defeat Biden in November.

“Nikki Haley is the candidate of the globalists and Democrats who will do everything to stop the America First movement,” Trump said in a statement. “It’s time to choose wisely.”

Haley addressed DeSantis’ exit during a campaign stop shortly after his announcement.

“I want to say to Ron, you ran a great race,” Haley said to cheering crowds. “It’s now one fella and one lady left.”

Some donors wanted DeSantis to preserve political capital so he could potentially run for president again in 2028. The Florida governor is only 45 years old, and donors see potential for him to seek higher office again when Trump is no longer on the ballot.

Once flush with cash and projecting bravado, DeSantis was considered the heir apparent to Trump and the former president’s most formidable challenger when he joined the race in May.

DeSantis has expressed regret over his early campaign media strategy where he avoided mainstream media, preferring instead to speak to conservative outlets.

“I should have just been blanketing. I should have gone on all the corporate shows. I should have gone on everything,” he told radio host, Hugh Hewitt, on a recent show.

Money woes

DeSantis’ operation was wracked by internal turmoil, including fights over messaging and strategy between the campaign based out of Tallahassee and the main super political action committee backing him, Never Back Down. It also became mired in leadership shakeups and a cash crunch.

Donors were rattled as DeSantis team’s burned through cash even as he began losing ground in the polls, leading him to lay off staff, reshuffle top aides and focus his strategy on early voting states, in particular Iowa. Many of his donors moved to back other candidates in the GOP field.

In the weeks before the Iowa caucuses, two newer super PACs, Fight Right and Good Fight, booked millions of dollars in advertisements in the state, highlighting the clash between the campaign and Never Back Down.

DeSantis and aides insisted they had money to stay in the race until at least early March but the Iowa loss raised fresh doubts among donors. In the days following the caucuses, DeSantis moved most of his team to South Carolina, largely ceding the New Hampshire contest to Trump and Haley.