Ron DeSantis Drops Out Of Presidential Race Ahead of New Hampshire Primary

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis halted his fraught bid to become the Republican nominee for the White House on Sunday afternoon, ending a Quixote-esque battle against former President Donald Trump.

“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, according to the Associated Press.

DeSantis took another swipe at former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who remains 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.”

Although the governor and his allies created a formidable campaign war chest of over $100 million, DeSantis never quite landed the political punch needed to become a serious challenger against the former president. He lost the Iowa caucuses — which he had vowed to win — by 30 percentage points to Trump.

The former GOP contender is expected to focus his attention on the rest of his second and final term as Florida’s governor, which ends in January 2027.

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