Rick Perry to suspend 2016 GOP presidential campaign

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is suspending his campaign to win the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, announcing the decision in a speech to the Eagle Forum in St. Louis on Friday afternoon.

Mr. Perry, who served 14 years as governor of Texas, had struggled to raise money and gain traction in a crowded and heavily experienced field.

He said God works in mysterious ways, but his political future had become clear to him.

“That is why today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States,” he said. “We have a tremendous field of candidates — probably the greatest group of men and women. I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, as long as we listen to the grassroots, listen to that cause of conservatism. If we do that, then our party will be in good hands.”

Suspending a campaign is, for all purposes, dropping out of the race. Candidates generally say they are suspending because of technical fundraising issues.

His decision comes less than a week before he was to join the rest of the field for the second debate of the primary season.

It’s also the second presidential campaign Mr. Perry has flamed out of, after his 2012 go-around was labeled one of the biggest campaign failures in modern political history.

This time around Mr. Perry had vowed to be more prepared, and to learn from his mistakes the last time, when he succeeded in fundraising, but failed to translate that into votes. He pulled out just ahead of the South Carolina primary in 2012, and a fellow governor, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, eventually won the nomination.

Mr. Perry this time faced a crowded field full of current and former governors with extensive experience and fundraising abilities, and he never found a niche. Last week, reports began to surface that he had stopped paying staffers, and some of his team had fled to other political campaigns.

Michael Dennehy, a Perry supporter and strategist in New Hampshire, said it was “a shame” that he couldn’t keep going.

“I fully support his decision,” Mr. Dennehy said. “Campaigns are unpredictable but it is a shame that a man with the most successful executive experience and the one who can best relate to middle class America will not be on the ballot as we choose the Republican nominee. Fortunately we have a tremendous field of candidates and we will have a good nominee next year.”

Mr. Perry was relegated to the second tier in last month’s first presidential debate in Ohio, and was going to be in the second tier in next week’s debate at the Reagan Presidential Library.

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, said that Mr. Perry struggled to rebound after being left out of the opening prime time debate.

“I knew that his demotion in Cleveland was punishing for him,” Mr. Schlapp said. “It was really a body blow. He put a good face on it because he has class, but that was brutal for him.”

Mr. Schlapp said the decision showed political maturity.

“I think he probably looked at the prospects of sitting at the ’kids’ table’ again in California and probably thought, ’This is not going where I thought [the campaign] was going to go,’” he said.

Mr. Perry remains under indictment in Texas on corruption charges after prosecutors said he tried to use the state budget to force a local prosecutor out of office.

His departure leaves just four candidates in that second-tier affair: Former Sen. Rick Santorum, former New York Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

On the main stage are 11 candidates: Businessman Donald Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey, John Kasich of Ohio and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, former Govs. Jeb Bush of Florida and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

Mr. Perry said in his prepared remarks that he leaves the race “a blessed man.”

“As I approach the next chapter in life, I do so with the love of my life by my side, Anita Perry. We have our house in the country, we have two beautiful children and two adorable grandchildren, four dogs, and the best sunset from our front porch that you could ever imagine,” he said.