WASHINGTON - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was once the leading rival to Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, ended his campaign on Jan 21 and threw his support behind the former president.

Mr DeSantis’ withdrawal, after months of weakening support, leaves only Ms Nikki Haley standing between Trump and the nomination as the Republicans’ candidate for the US presidential election in November.

In a video message, Mr DeSantis said that following his second-place finish last week in the Iowa caucuses, he could not “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,” he added.

The decision came less than two days before the New Hampshire primary, where polls showed him far behind front-runner Trump and former UN ambassador Ms Haley.

“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” Mr DeSantis said, noting that he has had differences with the former president, notably over the coronavirus pandemic.

“He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear or (a) repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

Trump stormed to victory in Iowa on Jan 16, with 51 per cent of Republican voters choosing the twice-impeached former president over Mr DeSantis, who got 21 per cent, and Ms Haley, who had 19 per cent.

No candidate has ever lost the race after claiming the first two states, and Trump, who is facing four criminal prosecutions and has pleaded not guilty in all of them, would almost certainly declare the Republican nomination over with a win in New Hampshire.

The Trump campaign said in a statement on Jan 21 that he was “honoured” by Mr DeSantis’ endorsement and called for Republicans to rally behind him, dismissing Ms Haley as “the candidate of the globalists and Democrats”.

“It’s time to choose wisely,” the statement added.

In her own statement, Ms Haley warned that the US is “not a country of coronations”.

“So far, only one state has voted. Half of its votes went to Donald Trump, and half did not... Voters deserve a say in whether we go down the road of Trump and (Joe) Biden again, or we go down a new conservative road,” she said.

Once a rising star

Many Republicans had pinned their hopes on Mr DeSantis, who at just 45 was embraced by some as a rising star of right.

But his candidacy, announced at the end of May, struggled to establish itself as a threat to Trump, 77.

Mr DeSantis, a former naval officer, was elected in 2018 as governor in Florida after receiving the valuable endorsement of Trump.

Since then, he often distanced himself from Trump and gained notoriety for a series of hard-right stances on education and immigration as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues.

His state management of the pandemic, pushing for a rapid reopening of the economy, and his opposition to the shutdowns of President Joe Biden’s administration made him an instant hit.

He then sought a national platform but appeared stiff and uneasy at candidate debates, media interviews and voter events.

Mr DeSantis appeared almost daily in the national media to lock horns in the cultural wars against “woke” politicians, businesses and professors he accuses of forcing their progressive ideology on Americans.

His most headline-grabbing initiatives included allowing Floridians to carry concealed guns without a permit and imposing one of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws.

“I’m glad that he has dropped out. I think it was inevitable,” Ms Lynne Mason, 60, who runs a small business in New Hampshire told AFP. “We need a strong leader right now, with the state of the United States at this point.”

Ahead of the New Hampshire vote on Jan 23, Ms Haley has largely refrained from hitting out at Trump, but she has begun questioning his mental acuity, making comparisons between him and Mr Biden, 81.

At an event in Seabrook, New Hampshire, she said Mr DeSantis “ran a great race, he’s been a good governor, and we wish him well”.

“Having said that, it’s now one fella and one lady,” she continued. “This comes down to, ‘What do you want?’ Do you want more of the same or do you want something new?” AFP, REUTERS