Paul, Santorum end USA presidential runs

The former Pennsylvania Senator dropped out of the presidential race on Wednesday after losing favour in the Iowa caucus and has instead spoken out in favour of his Republican colleague Senator Rubio.

Santorum is scheduled to appear on Fox News Wednesday night.

In 2012, the former Pennsylvania senator vaulted from relative obscurity – and a crushing re-election loss in his home state – to win the Iowa caucuses and 10 other states, only to fade into obscurity again after Mitt Romney clinched the GOP nomination.

Expressing confidence, Beynon said Santorum would benefit from a donor network that has only grown in the years since his first run.

Having won the 2012 Iowa caucus, Santorum based his 2016 strategy on replicating that victory, as did former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Santorum narrowly won the caucuses in 2012 but finished a distant 11th place with less than 1% of the vote on Monday after failing to retain the support of evangelicals who fueled his campaign four years earlier.

“I’m doing this to be the president of the United States and we’re going to go all the way to Cleveland” and the Republican nominating convention, she said on a phone call with donors.

After suspending his campaign and with the once-bulging Republican field now down to nine vying for the party’s nomination, Santorum threw his weight behind Rubio, whose star is on the rise. He never made it to the main stage in any of the Republican debates and had difficulty with maintaining staff and fundraising.

News of Santorum dropping out of the race comes just hours after Kentucky Sen. “I’ll ask it one more time, and don’t attack me because we’ve been friends for a very long time”. Despite failing to name any Senate accomplishments, Santorum said Rubio has “tremendous potential and gifts”. After finishing the so-called “kids table” debate last Thursday, Santorum and Huckabee both attended a Trump rally in Iowa.

Also Wednesday, self-styled Washington outsider Rand Paul dropped his struggling campaign for president and is returning to the Senate to run for re-election. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore all have Tuesday’s New Hampshire primaries to look forward to.

Santorum danced around the question for a second time, concluding that “I guess it’s hard to say there are accomplishments” when a junior senator is working in a government “where nothing gets done”.