Huntsman will quit GOP race, officials say

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Jon Huntsman will withdraw today from the race for the Republican presidential nomination, campaign officials told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Huntsman will endorse Mitt Romney at an event in South Carolina, the officials said.

Huntsman believes Romney is the best candidate to beat President Barack Obama in November, they said.

The campaign officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Huntsman plans to make the official announcement today.

The former Utah governor placed third in last week’s New Hampshire primary despite devoting most of his campaign resources to the state.

He had already acknowledged that expectations for him in South Carolina’s primary this week will be “very low.”

Huntsman was routinely at the bottom of national polls, barely registering at 1 percent or 2 percent.

His r sum suggested he could be a major contender for the GOP nomination: businessman, diplomat, governor, veteran of four presidential administrations, an expert on China and on foreign trade.

With a personal fortune based on his family’s global chemical company, he could be a late entry into the nomination contest without necessarily hobbling his campaign.

Yet Huntsman was almost invisible in a race often dominated by Romney, a fellow Mormon.

One reason was timing.

For months, Romney and other declared or expected-to-declare candidates drew media attention and wooed voters in early primary states.

Huntsman, meanwhile, was half a world away, serving as ambassador to China until he resigned in late April.

Nearly two more months would pass before his kickoff speech June 22 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

To distinguish his candidacy in a crowded field, Huntsman positioned himself as a tax-cutting, budget-balancing chief executive and former business executive who could rise above partisan politics.