It’s Ron DeSayonara
Trump’s arch rival says goodbye to White House race
WASHINGTON: Ron DeSantis has all but handed Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination after pulling out of the contest and giving his endorsement to the former president.
The Florida Governor – who was once considered the party’s best chance to move on from Mr Trump – abandoned his presidential run on Sunday, local time, ending what critics have called one of the worst campaigns in history.
The writing was on the wall for Mr DeSantis – who Mr Trump mockingly called “Ron DeSanctimonious” – after he slumped to a devastating defeat in last week’s Iowa caucuses, which he had previously promised to win. He finished in a distant second place with 21 per cent of the vote, as Mr Trump won with 51 per cent.
His implosion turns the Republican nomination race into a battle between Mr Trump and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
Ms Haley finished third in Iowa and is favoured to perform more strongly in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, where she will have the support of moderate votes.
But Mr DeSantis’s decision firms up the former president’s chances of running away with the nomination.
The polls had Mr Trump in a lead of almost 20 points before Mr DeSantis quit.
“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” Mr DeSantis said.
Despite his “disagreements with Donald Trump”, he said he would endorse him because he was “superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden”.
“He 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,” Mr DeSantis said in a video announcing his decision.
“The days of putting Americans last – of kowtowing to large corporations, of caving to woke ideology – are over.”
In 2022, Mr DeSantis romped to a dominant re-election win in the former swing state of Florida, establishing himself as a potential successor to the former president.
But his chances whittled away right from his campaign launch last May, a livestream event on X that was riddled with technical errors and widely mocked.
Despite spending tens of millions of dollars, Mr DeSantis continued to fall away in the polls as he refused to forcefully confront the former president for fear of upsetting Mr Trump’s broad and rustedon conservative base.