Santorum dropping out of GOP race: report
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum will end his campaign Wednesday, CNN is reporting.
The former Pennsylvania senator is slated to make two announcements Wednesday night during an appearance on Fox News, according to host Greta Van Susteren.
{mosads}Santorum, who was the GOP presidential runner-up in 2012, took 11th place, with just 1 percent support, in the Iowa caucuses Monday after winning the state during his previous White House bid.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) became the latest Republican to end his campaign earlier Wednesday.
A representative for Santorum did not immediately return a request for comment.
Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, dropped out of the Republican race Monday night.
Santorum’s campaign had announced he was postponing a 46-county tour in South Carolina that was supposed to start Wednesday.
He has hung below 1 percent in national polls.
Santorum finished 2015 with just $56,153 cash on hand in his campaign account, according to FEC reports. But his financial situation was even worse than that, as he had incurred debts of $617,801 over the same period.
Unlike his struggling rivals, the former Pennsylvania did not have a well-funded super-PAC to fall back on, so was unlikely he could have moved his campaign into larger states unless he pulled off an Iowa upset so dramatic that donors suddenly reassessed him en masse.
Both Santorum and Huckabee had struggled to stand out, with Ted Cruz having an edge among evangelical supporters in Iowa and Donald Trump benefitting from first-time and blue-collar voters.
Trump is slated to go on the same Fox News program Wednesday night as Santorum, stoking speculation that Santorum may endorse Trump.
Santorum and Huckabee appeared alongside Trump last week when the businessman held a fundraiser for veterans’ groups at the same time as the main-stage GOP debate. The two both participated in the undercard debate beforehand.
In his speech after losing the Iowa caucuses Monday night to Cruz, Trump congratulated his rivals and singled out Huckabee, describing him as someone “who’s become a really good friend of mine.”
Huckabee did not endorse a candidate when he ended his campaign Monday.
Updated at 2:31 p.m.
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