Former ambassador to China and one-time Utah governor Jon Huntsman is dropping his US presidential bid and will endorse frontrunner Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination on Monday, his campaign said.
The timing of the news was a shock, coming hours after Huntsman picked up a major newspaper endorsement in South Carolina, which votes this Saturday in a crucial contest that could all but seal the deal for Romney.
Huntsman\'s campaign team relayed news of his exit to the US media on Sunday evening, but the candidate was expected to announce it formally at 11:00 am (1600 GMT) on Monday and endorse Romney.
"The governor and his family, at this point in the race, decided it was time for Republicans to rally around a candidate who could beat Barack Obama and turn around the economy," campaign manager Matt David told The New York Times. "That candidate is governor Mitt Romney."
A source close to the Huntsman campaign told ABC that Romney was "not currently" planning to attend the drop-out/endorsement event in Myrtle Beach, where the remaining candidates will duke it out on Monday evening in a televised debate, the first of two this week.
Huntsman\'s endorsement, while not a game-changer, is welcome news for the favorite, who took a hit over the weekend when leading Christian evangelicals meeting in Texas chose to support rival Rick Santorum.
That move was symptomatic of lingering doubts among staunch conservatives over Romney, who has flip-flopped on core issues such as gay marriage and abortion in the past, and whose Mormon faith is a problem for some.
That hurdle to Romney\'s nomination has come into sharper relief as the Republican race has moved out of the northern states into the Bible Belt, where religion and politics often make for a volatile mix.
Polls show Romney, who won both of the first two nominating states, Iowa and New Hampshire, with a narrow four-percent lead over former House speaker Newt Gingrich.
Huntsman, a fluent Chinese speaker, struggled to strike a chord with primary voters, failing to shrug off his perceived closeness to the man most Republicans are united in loathing: Obama.
At a dramatic campaign launch in June at the Statue of Liberty launch, he promised to lead a civil presidential campaign, saying of Obama: "He and I have a difference of opinion on how to help a country we both love.
"But the question each of us wants the voters to answer is who will be the better president, not who\'s the better American."
On paper he should have shone, but the conservative governor of a well-run state and two-time ambassador with business experience may have misjudged a Republican electorate eager more for red-meat attacks on Obama than his own steady-as-she-goes approach.
"I\'m not gonna light my hair on fire," he said in October. "I don\'t think you have to be crazy to be in the Republican Party."
And in a much-noticed tweet in August, Huntsman broke with the Republican base, saying: "I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."
Huntsman decided not to compete in the first state to vote, Iowa, placing all his bets on New Hampshire, where he felt his more moderate brand of conservatism would get a better hearing.
"They pick corn in Iowa. They actually pick presidents here in New Hampshire," the 51-year-old scion of one of America\'s richest families opined at one point.
His gamble -- that if he could win or come a strong second in New Hampshire he would revive his lackluster bid -- failed as he ended in third behind runaway victor Romney and Ron Paul, a veteran Texas congressman and small government champion.
In accepting his third-place finish in New Hampshire, Huntsman put on a brave face, sounding triumphant as the confetti rained down and his supporters cheered.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I think we\'re in the hunt," he said, adding in comments likely to haunt him now: "I\'d say third place is a ticket to ride."
In reality, New Hampshire was the writing on the wall as the contest headed south into more conservative territory with Huntsman\'s campaign funds drying up and South Carolina polls showing him at the bottom of the pack.
Not even the endorsement on Sunday of South Carolina\'s largest paper, The State, appears to have made any difference for a candidate who always seemed more popular in the media than in the voting booths.
"At the end of the day he decided he did not want to hurt the best chance of beating Barack Obama and that\'s Mitt Romney," a Huntsman aide told ABC.
His departure leaves a five-way race between Romney, Paul, Santorum, Gingrich and Texas Governor Rick Perry.
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