Former Texas governor Rick Perry is suspending his campaign, becoming the first in a crowded GOP field to drop out of the 2016 presidential campaign. Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, announced his decision during a speech Friday night in St. Louis before conservative activists.
“I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States,” Perry said.
Perry, who spent a month as the frontrunner when he ran in 2012 before fading, struggled to get his campaign off the ground, finding himself strapped for cash and stuck polling at near 1 percent. The former governor leaves the field of Republicans at 16 candidates just days before the next GOP debate, and the deadline to pay the $40,000 fee for the South Carolina Republican primary was fast approaching.
“We have a tremendous field of candidates — probably the greatest group of men and women — I step aside knowing our party is in good hands.”