Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump.
The surprise video announcement came ahead of this week’s New Hampshire Republican primary, where the Florida governor was polling in the single digits.
Once considered a strong contender for the nomination, Ron DeSantis said he did not “have a clear path to victory”.
In response, Nikki Haley said she was now the “only one” able to beat President Joe Biden.
Ron DeSantis said his campaign “left it all out on the field” in a nearly five-minute long video announcement on X, formerly Twitter.
“If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome – more campaign stops, more interviews – I would do it,” the governor said, as he ended his seven-month campaign.
Ron DeSantis added that he was endorsing the former president because it had “become clear” that “a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance”.
While Ron DeSantis acknowledged “disagreements” with Donald Trump, he said he is “superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden”.
Speaking to voters in New Hampshire, Donald Trump said his campaign had “got some word that one of our opponents, a very capable person, is dropping out”.
“In doing so, [Ron DeSantis] endorsed us,” the former president added, to loud cheers in the room.
He went on to say that he believed “most of” Ron DeSantis’ votes, “or certainly many of them”, would go to his campaign – but added “we don’t need them”.
After Ron DeSantis’ announcement, Trump’s campaign called “for all Republicans to rally behind President Trump” and slammed Nikki Haley as “the candidate of the globalists and Democrats who will do everything to stop the America First movement”.
Ron DeSantis also took a swipe at Ms Haley, calling her a member of “the old Republican guard of yesteryear – a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism”.
Nikki Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN, responded by insisting she is the conservative – the “only one” – who can beat President Joe Biden.
Ron DeSantis narrowly finished ahead of Nikki Haley in last week’s Iowa caucus with 21% of the vote, compared to her 19%. Donald Trump received 51% of the vote.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race, saying “this is not my time”.
Mike Pence made the announcement at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on October 28.
“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” he wrote in a statement.
Mike Pence, 64, is the first major Republican candidate to suspend his campaign in a race led by former President Donald Trump.
He had languished in recent polls and had struggled to gain the support of Republican voters.
The former vice president’s campaign had also racked up large amounts of debt, with Mike Pence ending September owing $621,000 and having only US$1.2 million in the bank – significantly less than other Republican rivals.
“I am leaving this campaign, but I will never leave the fight for conservative values,” he wrote in a statement addressed to his supporters.
Photo Getty Images
Mike Pence lost the support of many Republican voters when he publicly broke with Donald Trump over the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021, and when he presided over the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election results in Congress.
Donald Trump admonished Mike Pence for lacking “courage” when he refused to overturn the Democratic leader’s election victory.
Some rioters were heard chanting “hang Mike Pence” as they stormed the halls of Congress in 2021, and since then many Trump loyalists have viewed him as a traitor.
The former vice-president said in March that Donald Trump’s encouragement of the rioters had “endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day”.
In his resignation, Mike Pence did not endorse any other Republican candidates for the presidential election.
But he called on Americans to choose a leader that “will ‘appeal to the better angels of our nature’ and not only lead us to victory but also lead our nation with civility and back to those time-honoured principles that have always made America strong, prosperous and free.”
Mike Pence’s decision to withdraw from the Republican presidential campaign came shortly before the third presidential debate on November 8.
Nearly three months after announcing his campaign, Donald Trump made his first campaign foray out of his adopted home state of Florida on January 28.
In New Hampshire, he addressed a meeting of the Republican Party and announced the outgoing state party chair would be a senior adviser to his campaign. And at the state capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, he received the endorsements of the state’s governor, Henry McMaster, and Senator Lindsey Graham.
Lindsay Graham, a Trump confidante who expressed some disillusionment after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, is now back firmly in the fold.
Donald Trump once again denied his 2020 defeat and told supporters that he – unlike any possible Republican alternatives – would be the most effective nominee in 2024.
“To change the whole system, you need a president who can take on the whole system and a president who can win,” he said from the state capitol’s main hall.
In both stops, the former president touted what he said was his record of success during his presidency and attacked President Joe Biden’s record on crime, immigration and the economy.
Image source Wikipedia
Across the street, Todd Gerhardt, a Republican district executive committee member from nearby Charleston, sold honey in Trump-shaped plastic bottles.
Todd Gerhardt was an early supporter of Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign, organized a 2016 rally for him on South Carolina’s posh Kiawah Island, and recently visited the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate for a fundraiser and to provide his honey for the campaign’s gift bags.
It’s no coincidence that the first two stops of Donald Trump’s third presidential campaign were South Carolina and New Hampshire. The two states could prove to be central to Trump’s strategy to retake the White House.
While Iowa is the first state to hold a Republican presidential nomination contest in 2024, Donald Trump finished third there in 2016 and the evangelical Christians who dominate the state’s Republican electorate could be eying other possible candidates, like former Vice-President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
New Hampshire and South Carolina, however, provided Donald Trump with a one-two punch that catapulted him to the front in 2016 – a lead he never relinquished.
They could do the same in 2024. In fact, every Republican presidential nominee since 1980 has won the South Carolina primary, making it unique among the traditional early-voting states.
South Carolina could prove to be a unique challenge for Donald Trump this time around, however. He faces potential challenges from Senator Tim Scott as well as the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley.
An Emerson Poll conducted earlier this week found 55% of Republican voters supporting Donald Trump, well ahead of the 29% for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not announced a presidential bid but is viewed to be the former president’s most formidable rival. A Monmouth poll in December had Mr DeSantis ahead by double-digits.
Earlier this week, Meta announced that it was lifting the suspension it had placed on Donald Trump’s accounts in the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. Although the former president has yet to resume posting to his accounts, his return could provide yet another opportunity for voter outreach – and fundraising – as his still minimally staffed campaign gears up for its 2024 run.
If rallies and Facebook donations were the fuel for Donald Trump’s past White House bids, his South Carolina stop was a different kind of operation.
With only 300 announced attendees, it was a decidedly low-key event compared to his typical arena gatherings, with their carnival atmosphere. Attire tended toward sport coats and dresses, not Make America Great Again hats and Let’s Go Brandon t-shirts.
To win a third Republican presidential nomination, however, Donald Trump will need the support of the political rank-and-file in states like New Hampshire and South Carolina, as well as his rally-going loyalists. And while Donald Trump’s national polls show continued strength, a recent South Carolina survey had nearly half of Republican voters expressing a preference for “someone else” besides Donald Trump.
Former President Donald Trump has announced his presidential candidacy on November 15, declaring: “America’s comeback starts right now.”
At his Mar-a-Lago estate, Donald Trump, 76, said: “We have to save our country.”
His announcement comes as some fellow Republicans blame him for the party’s lacklustre performance in last week’s midterm elections.
President Joe Biden, who defeated Donald Trump two years ago, has said he may run for re-election in 2024.
Speaking to an invited crowd from the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago private club in Palm Beach, Donald Trump said: “We are a nation in decline.
“For millions of Americans, the past two years under Joe Biden have been a time of pain, hardship, anxiety and despair.”
He continued: “In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”
“Donald Trump” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Gage Skidmore
Shortly before the speech, the former president filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission formally declaring his presidential candidacy and setting up a fundraising account.
Meanwhile, outside Mar-a-Lago, supporters gathered to wave Trump 2024 flags.
Donald Trump’s speech lasted for more than an hour and touched on many of the same themes he has been repeating on stage for months.
These included border security, energy independence and crime, as well as attacks on Joe Biden’s record in office.
His wife, Melania Trump, joined him on stage at the end of the speech. But there were fewer family members present than at some of his past events and Ivanka Trump and Donald Jr did not attend.
At the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, President Biden was asked whether he had a reaction to Donald Trump’s announcement.
“No, not really,” he said. Last week, he was filmed laughing when a reporter suggested Donald Trump’s support base remained strong.
Donald Trump’s unusually early declaration for the election of November 5, 2024 is being seen as a tactic to steal a march on potential rivals for the Republicans’ White House nomination.
Although he is the first to enter the race and instantly becomes the front-runner, he is expected to face challengers.
They may include his own former VP Mike Pence, 63, and rising star Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44.
In his remarks, Donald Trump largely steered clear of rehashing his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him by mass voter fraud.
He left office after one term in 2021, refusing to acknowledge his defeat by seven million votes.
His debunked conspiracy theories riled up supporters who rioted at Capitol Hill in the final days of his presidency as lawmakers met to certify President Biden’s victory.
Donald Trump became the first president ever to be impeached twice, although congressional Democrats were thwarted in their bid to remove him from office by Senate Republicans.
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