DeSantis Quits Race, endorses Trump

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his Republican presidential campaign Sunday just before the New Hampshire primary and endorsed Donald Trump, ending a White House bid that failed to meet expectations that he would emerge as a serious challenger to the former president.

“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” he said in a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary comes Tuesday.

DeSantis derided former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, long his closest rival for second place in the primary race, saying Republicans “can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

And now, DeSantis’ political future is in question after suspending his presidential bid after just one voting contest. The 45-year-old is term limited as Florida governor.

Fueled by his dominant Florida reelection in 2022, DeSantis sidestepped tradition by announcing his presidential campaign on X, in a conversation on the social media site with CEO Elon Musk. The site failed repeatedly during the conversation, making it all but impossible to hear his opening remarks as a presidential candidate.

In the subsequent weeks and months, DeSantis struggled to connect with voters on a personal level under the unforgiving bright lights of the presidential stage.

He irked some New Hampshire Republican officials in his campaign’s inaugural visit to New Hampshire by declining to take questions from voters, as is tradition in the state. And later, uncomfortable interactions with voters in other states were caught on camera as well.

More serious financial challenges emerged over the summer.

By the end of July, DeSantis had laid off nearly 40 employees in a move designed to cut roughly one-third of his campaign payroll. The cuts came shortly after public filings revealed that he was burning through his substantial campaign coffers at an unsustainable rate.

As internal financial concerns mounted, DeSantis turned aggressively to an allied super PAC to handle basic campaign functions such as organizing campaign events, advertising and an expansive door-knocking operation.

Federal law does not allow campaigns to coordinate directly with super PACs. In December, a nonpartisan government watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, citing reporting by The Associated Press and others, alleging that the degree of coordination and communication between DeSantis’ campaign and the Never Back Down super PAC crossed a legal line.

DeSantis denied any wrongdoing and called the complaint “a farce.”

Still, the steady stream of negative developments leading up to the opening primary contests undermined the confidence of DeSantis’ donor network, which was supposed to be a major strength, and would-be supporters at the ballot box. As his polling numbers stagnated, DeSantis and his allies pulled back on their multistate strategy and focused virtually all of his resources on Iowa’s opening caucuses.

After leaving the 2024 presidential contest, DeSantis now refocuses his attention to the rest of his second and final term as Florida’s governor, which ends in January 2027.