SALAR NEWS

DeSantis quits US Presidential race, endorses Trump for 2024

Nikki Haley is the only republican to take on Trump

PTI

https://salarnews.in/public/uploads/images/newsimages/maannewsimage22012024_213821_Ron DeSantis.jpg

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis

WASHINGTON, 22 JAN

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he is withdrawing from the Republican party's presidential primary race and endorsing former US president Donald Trump as the party's nominee.

Indian American former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, 51, is the only Republican left in the race against Trump, 77, who is seeking to enter the White House for the second term. A White House occupant from January 2017 to January 2021, Trump lost to incumbent Joe Biden in the 2020 elections.

Trump, who is so far the most popular Republican presidential candidate with a majority of the party members supporting him, as per all major polls, won the Iowa Caucus last week and is leading in the New Hampshire primaries, which is scheduled for 23 January. With the withdrawal by DeSantis, who once was seen as a formidable challenge to Trump, it's now a race of two in the Republican party between Trump and Haley. Political pundits now say that the former president is set to be the party's nominee, and the November 2024 presidential elections will be a repeat of the 2020 elections: Trump vs Biden.

"Following our second-place finish in Iowa, we've prayed and deliberated on our way forward. If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it. But I can't ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don't have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign," DeSantis said in a video message posted on X, a social media platform.

"It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance. While I have had disagreements with Donald Trump, such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci, Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden. That is clear," he said.

"I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honour that pledge. 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," De Santis said.