Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign.
His second-place finish in Iowa was still shocking, but it was so close to third-place Nikki Haley that, after spending over $150 million between his campaign and supportive super PAC, it was a humiliating result.
Going into New Hampshire, DeSantis was running a distant third place in the Granite State, and scoring such low numbers that it gave his presidential campaign little momentum heading into upcoming primary and caucus contests such as Nevada and South Carolina.
In a tweet announcing he was quitting, DeSantis quoted a fake Winston Churchill message: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
DeSantis fashioned himself to be a new standard bearer for the Republican Party, but with Donald Trump still as popular as ever among many Republicans, there was no pathway forward for the now-former presidential candidate.
NBC News reporter Dasha Burns told Alex Witt on Sunday that one strategic problem, beyond personality, was that DeSantis hired loyalists rather than experts.
While he has attacked Trump and other Republicans for kissing Trump's ring, he endorsed Trump.
