Florida, United States: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the biggest challenger for the Republican presidential nomination against Donald Trump, suspended his campaign on Sunday while endorsing the former President.
The development comes after Trump grabbed a record-breaking victory in the Republican Party’s Iowa caucuses.
DeSantis made the announcement in a video posted on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in which he endorsed Trump for president in his announcement.
He said, after Trump’s victory in Iowa he could no longer see a clear path to victory in the Republican race.
“If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it,” he said.
“But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources. We don’t have a clear path to victory,” he added.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill pic.twitter.com/ECoR8YeiMm
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 21, 2024
“Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.”
While endorsing Trump, he said it is clear that a majority of Republican primary voters want to elect Donald Trump for another term.
“He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear,” he said.
DeSantis had attempted to cast himself as a politically successful heir to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement without Trump’s baggage.
He also carried with him a strong election record for the Republican Party, having achieved a blowout 2022 re-election win in Florida.
US President Joe Biden has said that Donald Trump is the “clear front runner” to be the Republican candidate in the US polls after the former President won the Iowa caucuses, local media reported on Tuesday.
In a statement via social media, Joe Biden said, that Donald Trump just won Iowa and he is the clear front runner on the other side at this point.
Iowa accounts for less than 2 percent of the delegates awarded across the US in the process to pick a party flagbearer, so a big night by no means pledges triumph in the rest of the nominating season.
But a huge display is essential for candidates hoping for a foundation to New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, and onwards to the office of the US President.
