Rick Perry Out; Fla. Primary Looms Large
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Texas Governor Rick Perry told supporters Thursday that he is ending his presidential campaign.
Perry said that he found no viable path forward for his presidential run.
The move, combined with new numbers from Iowa have thrust Florida's January 31 primary into the national spotlight.
Perry's move was not unexpected, but many thought he would drop out after the South Carolina primary Saturday.
The Texas governor never polled above single-digits in recent months and now throws his weight behind Newt Gingrich.
Perry said Gingrich is a "conservative visionary" during his announcement Thursday.
The news came just hours after Iowa announced new numbers from the Iowa caucuses showed Rick Santorum won the state by 32 votes over Mitt Romney.
The state had previously listed Romney as the winner over Santorum by eight votes.
The two storylines have made South Carolina's primary crucial to the success of Romney and made Florida's January 31 primary the biggest primary of the season.
Gingrich has started to surge in recent national polls and in South Carolina, which will hold the next primary Saturday.
Rasmussen conducted a national snap poll overnight Tuesday and found the split between Romney and Gingrich was just three percent, or a statistical tie based on a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
In the Rasmussen poll, Romney led the way with 30 percent of support from Republicans. Gingrich was second at 27 percent, Rick Santorum was third with 15 percent, and Ron Paul was fourth with 14 percent.
A CBS News/New York Times poll conducted over the last week, found Romney was leading Gingrich 28 percent to 21 percent nationally.
Rick Santorum came in third in the CBS poll with 16 percent; Ron Paul was fourth with 15 percent. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 5 percent.
While the Rasmussen and CBS News polls could be outliers; Gingrich's performance in the most recent Fox News debate in South Carolina could be bolstering his overall image.
The biggest question for Gingrich and Santorum will be which candidate will blink first and endorse the other.
Both have essentially split the more conservative vote of the Republican Party and in doing so, have opened the door for Romney to become the de facto leader.
Romney has gone from being the presumed nominee on Monday to being in a complete dogfight by Thursday.
But, Gingrich likely won't get much of a bump in South Carolina from Perry's endorsement because Gingrich had already picked up most of Perry's supporters, according to Nate Silver of the New York Times.
If Gingrich can pull off a win in South Carolina, it will mean each candidate has won a state heading into the Florida primary.
Florida politicians hoped that by moving the primary to January 31, it would make Florida relevant in the nominating process.
Thanks to a confluence of events and shifting public opinion, it looks like Florida's primary may be the fiercest battleground state any of the candidates have faced thus far.
