THE MILLIONAIRE publisher, Mr Steve Forbes, has withdrawn from the race for the White House, throwing his support behind the Republican front-runner, Senator Bob Dole. However, while a defiant Mr Pat Buchanan continues to campaign in the Mid-West.
Mr Forbes, who has spent more than $25 million of his personal fortune to run for president, decided to pull out of the race after Mr Dole's seven-state sweep of the "Super Tuesday" primary elections.
In Washington yesterday, Mr Forbes quit the nomination race and endorsed Mr Dole.
"It's no secret that I am here today to announce that I am ending my campaign for the Republican nomination for president.
I will now support Senator Dole wholeheartedly as he prepares to engage Bill Clinton in the critical election this November," Mr Forbes said at a news conference.
His withdrawal leaves only Mr Buchanan as a major opponent for Mr Dole in the once-crowded Republican field.
It was a strictly pragmatic decision - he looked at the polls and he looked at the compressed timetable for the remaining primaries and he said, "It just won't work," Mr Forbes's campaign manager, Mr William Dal Col said, according to the Washington Post.
Mr Forbes's formal announcement of his withdrawal was expected to be made on Thursday with his wife and children standing by his side.
He had said earlier he would lend his backing to Mr Dole's campaign without any preconditions.
But Mr Buchanan said he would stay in the race up to the Republican convention in San Diego in August to try to force the party to take up his anti-abortion, anti-free trade ideas.
"We believe that we're winning the battle for the heart and soul and the future of the Republican party. We're going to stay in right to the convention," Mr Buchanan told the PBS programme, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
Both Mr Dole and Mr Buchanan were headed for the Mid-West yesterday to look for votes in next Tuesday's primaries in four heartland states - Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin where a total of 229 convention delegates are at stake.
Mr Dole already has the lion's share of the 996 delegates he will need in August to clinch his party's nomination; Mr Buchanan is a distant second with only about one-eighth the number of Mr Dole's delegates.
Mr Forbes, whose fortune derives from his family publishing empire, based his campaign on a plan to replace the graduated income tax system with a flat 17 per cent tax.
Mr Clinton has already sewn up the Democratic nomination, which was never in doubt.