(Radio Iowa) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has suspended his presidential campaign, just six days after finishing a distant second to former President Trump in the Iowa Caucuses. “It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said. “…He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yester-year, a repackaged form of warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

DeSantis made his announcement Sunday afternoon in a video posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. With the New Hampshire Primary coming up on Tuesday, DeSantis said he could not ask his supporters to volunteer their time and money if there was not a clear path to victory. A month ago, DeSantis was predicting he’d win the Iowa Caucuses. DeSantis and political action committees supporting his campaign spent 35 million dollars in Iowa and he visited each of Iowa’s 99 counties

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaking to a crowd in a Pizza Ranch in Garner, Iowa on Aug. 28, 2023. (RI photo)

“Nobody worked harder and we left it all out on the field,” DeSantis said. DeSantis, in announcing his endorsement of Trump, mentioned he had signed a pledge to honor the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. Governor Kim Reynolds, who endorsed DeSantis in November, has also been saying she’ll back Trump if he’s the nominee.

“This wasn’t about President Trump. I supported him in ’16. I supported him in ’20. I wish he would have won,” Reynolds said. “…I can tell you without hesitation whoever our nominee is, I’m going to get behind them because this country is in trouble.”

Reynolds made her comments Friday on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.