MANCHESTER, N.H. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his Republican presidential campaign Sunday just before the New Hampshire primary and endorsed 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.
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.”
DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential contest with major advantages in his quest to take on Trump, and early primary polls suggested DeSantis was in a strong position to do just that. He and his allies amassed a political fortune well in excess of $100 million, and he boasted a significant legislative record on issues important to many conservatives.
Such advantages did not survive the reality of presidential politics in 2024. He lost the Iowa caucuses — which he had vowed to win — by 30 percentage points to Trump.
