Breaking: Rick Perry Becomes First 2016 Presidential Candidate To Drop Out

Rick Perry is exiting the 2016 race less than a week before the second GOP presidential debate.

Rick Perry is dropping out of the 2016 presidential race. The former Texas GOP governor was beleaguered by an inability to raise sufficient funds amid a large field and a strong fundraising focus by Jeb Bush.

“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 said in a statement, as reported by Bloomberg.

Perry technically will “suspend” his campaign which allows for further fundraising and re-organization.

“Today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency of the United States,” Perry said in a speech before the far-right wing Eagle Forum.

“My friends, this is not the America I know,” Perry says, lamenting President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Perry offers words of support for fellow Southern GOP governors Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, and took several swings at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, cautioning, “we cannot indulge nativist appeals that divide the nation further. The answer to our current divider-in-chief is not to elect a Republican divider-in-chief.”

“Let me be crystal clear: for those of us in Christ, our citizenship is first and foremost in God’s kingdom, our brothers and sisters are those made in the image of God, and our obligation – after loving God with all our heart, mind and soul – is to love our neighbors as ourselves, regardless of where they come from.”

Perry, who is facing a felony charge, took time to promote conservatism as “inherently optimistic.”

“It celebrates the power of the individual, it believes in free markets over state-controlled solutions. It knows free individuals can govern their own lives better than centralized government.” 

“Progressives think we need to protect the people from themselves. Conservatives think we need to protect the people from government,” he claimed.

 

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

 

Image by WEBN-TV via Flickr and a CC license