Carson effectively ends 2016 campaign
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who held a brief lead in the Republican presidential race before his campaign faded, told supporters in a statement Wednesday afternoon that he does not see "a political path forward" and will not attend Thursday's Fox News debate in Detroit.
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who held a brief lead in the Republican presidential race before his campaign faded, told supporters in a statement Wednesday afternoon that he does not see "a political path forward" and will not attend Thursday's Fox News debate in Detroit.
Carson did not formally suspend his campaign, and said he would speak about his political future Friday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington.
Still, the announcement was an acknowledgment that his candidacy is effectively over after poor finishes in the 11 states that held Republican nominating contests Tuesday. The campaign had been plagued by staff infighting and Carson's stumbles, particularly on foreign policy issues.
Now, the Republican race has four candidates.
"This grassroots movement on behalf of 'We the People' will continue," Carson said. "Along with millions of patriots who have supported my campaign for president, I remain committed to saving America for future generations. We must not depart from our goals to restore what God and our founders intended for this exceptional nation."
Carson, 64, emerged as a conservative hero in 2013 at the typically nonpartisan National Prayer Breakfast, where he condemned what he called political correctness, advocated a flat tax, and excoriated the Affordable Care Act. It was most remarkable because he spoke just a few feet from President Obama, who listened with a set jaw and pursed lips.
Before launching his campaign last May, Carson had raised about $16 million and built a network of 30,000 volunteers. He bested Donald Trump in Iowa polls over the summer, but after the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., voters focused on foreign affairs and Carson's skimpy knowledge of the subject hurt him. He has not won a single state.
Carson's move leaves the GOP race with Trump; Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Long before his unlikely turn in politics, Carson gained world renown as a pediatric neurosurgeon. Brought up in poverty in Detroit by a single mother with a third-grade education, Carson has described himself as a lousy student with a bad temper. But he went on to graduate from Yale University and medical school, rising to be the youngest doctor ever to head a surgery department at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
His autobiography, Gifted Hands, was turned into a TV movie.
For all his hard-line conservative rhetoric, Carson was soft-spoken and gentle in debates and on the stump.
"You know, if we have a disagreement, why can't we have a civil discussion about it?" he said in a 2015 interview. "Why does it mean we have to be enemies, that we have to demonize the other person, castigate their character?"
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