Ron DeSantis Drops Out, Endorses Donald Trump, Bashes Nikki Haley

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Sunday that he has suspended his bid for president and is endorsing former President Donald Trump in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter. He also took the opportunity to call GOP rival Nikki Haley a representation of "warmed over corporatism."

"I am today suspending my campaign," DeSantis said in his video, less than two days before the New Hampshire primary election. "I'm proud to have delivered on 100 percent of my promises and I will not stop now."

The Republican governor then pivoted to Trump, who is the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination.

"It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters wanna give Donald Trump another chance. They've watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance and they see Democrats use lawfare to this day to attack him," he said.

DeSantis gave Trump his endorsement while taking a dig at Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

"Trump is superior to the current incumbent Joe Biden, that is clear. I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge," DeSantis said. "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. The days of putting Americans last, of kowtowing the large corporations, of caving to woke ideology are over."

Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' campaign via online form as well as Trump's and Haley's campaign via email for comment.

DeSantis wrote in his X post alongside the video, "'Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.' - Winston Churchill." This is a misattributed quote, however. The International Churchill Society has previously said on its website that it cannot find an attribution to this quote, despite it being broadly attributed to the 20th century British prime minister.

Responding to the news of DeSantis dropping out, Haley addressed a crowd at a campaign event in Seabrook, New Hampshire, on Sunday: "I wanna to say to Ron, he 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 left."

She added: "And this comes down to, what do you want? Do you want more of the same, or do you want something new. May the best woman win."

Trump supporters cheered as the former president shared the news of DeSantis' withdrawal from the race and his endorsement, while on the campaign trial in New Hampshire. "Without the endorsement I think we would've gotten almost all of those votes because we have very similar policies—strong borders, great education, low taxes..."

The former president's campaign also took a jab at Haley amid DeSantis' endorsement. His campaign said in a statement, according to NBC News deputy politics editor Alana Satlin, that it is "honored by the endorsement," adding "Nikki Haley is the candidate of the globalists and Democrats who will do everything to stop the America First movement."

When asked by CNN's Dana Bash on the campaign trial about DeSantis accusing her of representing "warmed over corporatism," Haley said on Sunday, "There's no proof to that."

President Joe Biden is the incumbent and likely Democratic nominee. Haley admitted that Biden and Trump are "equally bad," when probed by Bash. "That's why I'm running because I don't think we need to have Biden or Trump," the former governor said.

What the Polls Show

DeSantis dropped out after losing to Trump in the Iowa Republican caucus by about 30 points on Monday. Trump received 51 percent of voter support while DeSantis and Haley trailed with 21.2 percent and 19.1 percent, respectively. The Florida governor's prospects in New Hampshire looked even worse. In a CNN/University of New Hampshire poll published on Sunday, DeSantis received just 6 percent of voter support while Trump got 50 percent and Haley had 39 percent. The poll was conducted between January 16 and 19, and surveyed 1,242 likely GOP primary voters. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2.8 percent.

Meanwhile, a Morning Consult national poll conducted between January 11 and 13 showed that 41 percent of Trump supporters said DeSantis would be their second choice and just 15 percent said they would back Haley as a second option. The poll surveyed 3,926 potential GOP primary voters. Of those people, 69 percent said they'd pick Trump as their first option. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 to 3 percent.

Update 1/21/24, 5:04 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.