Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has decided to quit the race for the Republican nomination, three people familiar with the decision have revealed.
The New York Times reports that Walker has called a press conference at 6pm in Madison, presumably to announce the decision, because he “has concluded he no longer has a path to the Republican presidential nomination.”
Why? From the Times:
“The short answer is money,” said a supporter of Mr. Walker’s who was briefed on the decision. “He’s made a decision not to limp into Iowa.”
Walker entered the race with high expectations, but his polling numbers quickly tanked. In recent months, he was performing poorly in supposedly-friendly, neighboring Iowa and he had decided not to attend major events, such as the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference.
As recently as last week, he was still attempting to persuade donors that he was viable, but apparently his entreaties were ineffectual.
With such low polling numbers, there is little hard support for Walker that can now go elsewhere. He goes the way of such previous candidates as Rick Perry in 2012 who entered the race as a presumed front-runner only to drop sharply and never recover their footing.
