Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race for the White House and endorsed rival Donald Trump in a stunning move less than 48 hours before the New Hampshire primary.
The Florida Governor, widely considered the future of the Republican party and initially the favorite to take down Trump, announced he was suspending his campaign in a surprise video announcement Sunday afternoon.
It followed mounting speculation that donors were fleeing and his campaign was struggling to find a path to make a dent in Trump’s huge polling lead.
DeSantis came second in the Iowa caucuses and largely avoided campaigning in New Hampshire so he could focus on South Carolina – the home state of 2024 candidate Nikki Haley.
But the writing was on the wall when the campaign fired half its staff, big-money backers were increasingly frustrated with his war on ‘woke’ and top brass were at each other’s throats.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his presidential campaign on Sunday. Pictured: DeSantis at a campaign stop in Nashua, New Hampshire on January 19
‘We don’t have a clear path to victory,’ DeSantis said in the video posted to X announcing his departure from the race. ‘Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.’
Now the Republican primary is down to a two-person race with only former President Trump and his once-United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley vying for the nomination.
‘I want to say to Ron, he ran a great race,’ Haley said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Sunday afternoon. ‘He’s been a good governor, and we wish him well. Having said that, it’s now one fella and one lady left.’
Despite repeatedly bashing Trump for refusing to debate in the primary cycle and taking several hits from the ex-president, the governor decided to endorse his former rival.
Throughout the campaign, Trump called DeSantis a ‘traitor’ for deciding to run for president in 2024 after the former president’s endorsement is what led him to clinch the Republican nomination for governor in Florida in 2018.
‘It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,’ DeSantis said. ‘They watch his presidency gets stymied by relentless resistance, and they see Democrats using lawfare this day to attack him.’
He added: ‘Trump is superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden. That is clear.’
‘I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge.’
The pledge in question is what the Republican National Committee (RNC) required all candidates to sign, vowing to support the eventual nominee if they wanted to participate in their four primary debates last year. Trump never signed the pledge and refused to show up for the debates.
After no guidance was sent for events on Sunday or Monday ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, speculation began to swirl over where DeSantis had landed after his Saturday swing.
The announcement of the end of his campaign was filmed in Florida, where it is now known he returned to after holding his last 2024 campaign event in South Carolina on Saturday.
Moments after the video went live, guidance was sent canceling DeSantis’ meet and greet in Manchester, New Hampshire on Sunday evening.
Trump endorsed DeSantis in his 2018 bid for governor in Florida, using his coattails to help earn him the Republican nomination and eventually the win
DeSantis’ campaign vehemently denied to DailyMail.com on Sunday any rumors that could emerge detailing DeSantis’ plans to drop out – but just hours later, the governor released a video on X ending his bid.
‘Nobody worked harder, and we left it all out on the field,’ DeSantis said in a four-and-a-half video on his exit from the campaign. ‘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,’ he continued. ‘But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources.’
It appeared that DeSantis would stay in the race until after South Carolina in hopes that Haley would do poorly in her home state and drop out.
But instead, he chose to exit before New Hampshire could weigh-in on Tuesday.
‘[Trump] has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear – a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism – that Nikki Haley represents,’ he said in slamming the former president’s only remaining GOP contender.
DeSantis’ young family joined him for most of his time campaigning. Pictured: Ron, Casey, Madison, six, Mason, five, and Mamie, three, appear together on stage at a campaign event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Saturday, January 20 – the day before Gov. DeSantis dropped out of the race
Casey and Ron DeSantis embrace during a caucus night party on Monday, January 15 in West Des Moines, Iowa after the governor’s second place finish in the first primary contest state
DeSantis’ final days in the race had him frantically trying to figure out where his message might best resonate after he lost Iowa to Trump by 30 points.
After completing the ‘full Grassley’ in Iowa by traveling to all 99 counties and receiving the endorsement of the state’s popular Gov. Kim Reynolds, DeSantis still couldn’t turn ou the vote for a win in the caucuses on January 15.
The day after the Iowa caucuses DeSantis flew to Greenville, South Carolina to get a jump start in the fourth primary contest state in hopes voters would turn against Nikki Haley there.
After the quick South Carolina stop, DeSantis flew back to New Hampshire later that day before CBS News broke on Wednesday that the governor planned to leave the Granite State – possibly for good – to again campaign in South Carolina all weekend.
That trip, however, ended up lasting one day – with three events. It concluded with headlines on how DeSantis sparred with a fourth grade teacher over Haley’s education record as governor.
On Sunday, instead of campaigning in South Carolina, DeSantis was expected to fly back to New Hampshire. But after canceling appearances on NBC’s Meet the Press and CNN’s State of the Union in the process, it became clear something else was afoot.
Hours later on Sunday morning he dropped out of the race and canceled remaining events.