Florida governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Trump

DeSantis announced his campaign last May, pledging to lead the “Great American Comeback” by restoring “sanity to our nation” and “replacing the woke mind virus with reality”

He portrayed himself as a younger, less controversial version of Donald Trump who could deliver on his promises

At the time of his entry into the race, he was widely regarded as Trump’s greatest challenger

Yet DeSantis’s campaign struggled with declining poll numbers, high staff turnover, and the exodus of several large donors

Meanwhile, polls suggested Nikki Haley was catching up to him or even surpassing him as Trump’s biggest competitor

During last week’s Iowa Caucus, the first event of the Republican primary season, DeSantis finished in second place with 21% of the vote, trailing Trump by 30+ percentage points

Polls suggest DeSantis enjoyed much less support in New Hampshire and North Carolina, the next two events in the Republican primary

On Sunday, two days before the New Hampshire primary, DeSantis announced he is dropping out of the race

“Following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on the way forward,” he said in a video. “If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome… I would do it. But…We don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am suspending my campaign”

DeSantis also endorsed Trump: “He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, or repackage [forms] of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents”

With DeSantis’s exit, the Republican primary now narrows to two candidates: Trump and Haley

Trump has escalated attacks against Haley, who trails Trump in polls by double-digit margins

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