After weeks of struggling in the polls and being unable toย raise enough cashย to pay his staffers, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Fridayย became the first major candidate to drop out ofย the 2016 presidential race.
“We have a tremendous field — the best in a generation — so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grassroots, the cause of conservatism will be too,” Perry saidย in a speech at the Eagle Forum, a gathering in St. Louis, Missouri, of other candidates and conservative activists.ย “That is why today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States.”