WASHINGTON — (CNN) Rick Perry dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Friday, as his campaign was unable to overcome deep financial problems that left him without enough money to run a campaign in early voting states.
“That is why today, I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States,” Perry said at the Eagle Forum in St. Louis. “Life is good. I am a blessed man.”
Perry, who also sought the White House in 2012, was unable to reassemble the Texas political and financial base that made him, at one point, the party’s front-runner in the last presidential cycle.
This summer, the second campaign began to unravel, with the Austin-based operation essentially abandoning its campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire. A well-funded super PAC offered help and a willingness to make up for the cash-strapped campaign, but apparently that financial backing was not enough.
This week, Perry shuttered his South Carolina campaign headquarters in the capital city of Columbia, his state chairman Katon Dawson confirmed Tuesday.
Perry’s decision comes almost a month after the Perry campaign announced that it would no longer be paying staff across the country, and just days before the next presidential debate where some allies thought he could finally revive his ambitions.
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