Republican Carson officially ends White House bid

US Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has officially ended his bid for the White House after failing to win any of the early states in the race for the November election.

Dr Carson suspended his presidential campaign on Friday, ending an upstart bid that began with promise before fizzling out. The retired neurosurgeon signalled that he was winding things down earlier this week, when he said that he would skip the Republican debate last Thursday night. He acknowledged that after a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday he did not see a political path forward.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Carson received a standing ovation when he announced that he would be leaving the campaign trail. “There’s a lot of people who love me; they just won’t vote for me,” Dr Carson said. “I will still continue to be heavily involved in trying to save our nation.”

Despite his departure from the race, Dr Carson is not finished with politics. Before his speech, he announced that he would be taking the helm of My Faith Votes, a non-partisan organisation with a mission of mobilising Christians who are registered voters to go to the polls. “Nothing is more important to me than my personal faith, and it is my faith that motivated me to be involved in the political process to begin with,” Dr Carson said in a statement.

“I believe Christians in this country can easily determine the next president of the United States and all other national and local leaders, should they simply show up at the polls.”

Impressive feat

That Dr Carson (64) came this far in the campaign was an impressive feat considering that he began as a considerable longshot – a retired surgeon who had never sought any public office before he announced his candidacy last spring.

Dr Carson was already known through his memoirs, including Gifted Hands, which is widely read in schools and was made into a TV movie with Cuba Gooding. But he became a national political figure after delivering a keynote speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, in which he offered what some considered a rebuke of the policies of US president Barack Obama, who was sitting just feet way.

As an African-American with a hopeful story of upward mobility, Dr Carson appealed to a Republican Party and electorate eager for a more diverse group of candidates, and quickly became a frequent guest and speaker at conservative gatherings. But it was ultimately his weak understanding of foreign policy that pierced his campaign’s momentum.

In a November interview, two of his top advisers told the New York Times that Dr Carson was struggling on that front. “Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East,” Duane R Clarridge, an adviser on terrorism and national security, said at the time.

Evangelical Christians

Deeply religious, Dr Carson remains popular with evangelical Christians and appears eager to keep working in politics.

Dr Carson did not endorse any other candidate for the Republican nomination on Friday, but he said that voters should choose someone who is accomplished and ethical and said that voters should not make a decision based on fear. He also issued a call for civility to his former opponents, warning that the infighting among Republicans would make things easy for Democrats in a general election. “They must understand that we, the Republicans, are not each other’s enemies,”

Carson said. “We cannot afford to give the Democrats all this ammunition.”.

“There are a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me,” Dr Carson said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Dr Carson had announced on Wednesday he did not see a “political path forward” in his campaign for the party’s nomination, and had not attended the Republican debate in Michigan on Thursday.

– (New York Times service)