Huntsman withdraws, endorses Romney

By Karoun Demirjian

Monday, Jan. 16, 2012 | 10:20 a.m.

Nevada moderates and Mormon GOP voters will not face a potentially difficult choice about who to back for a presidential bid in two weeks, after Jon Huntsman dropped out of the race and endorsed his main rival, Mitt Romney.

Huntsman, former governor of Utah and ambassador to China, has spared Romney no verbal rod over the last few weeks, suggesting the former Massachusetts governor was a “perfectly lubricated weathervane” with no “core,” among other uniquely worded criticisms.

But Monday morning, he called for an end to the negative campaigning and for the rest of the field to “unite around the candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama.”

“Despite our differences and the space between us on some of the issues,” Huntsman said from a podium in South Carolina, “I believe that candidate is Mitt Romney.”

Huntsman commented that he had entered the race six months ago as the “longest of long shots.” He was never able to make up the gap.

In Nevada, Huntsman might have gained traction among the Republicans as an independently minded politician with a tie-in to the Mormon community and roots in the West.

He seemed to have the support of several deep-pocketed donors — as of October, Huntsman had pulled in $156,000 from Nevadans, second only to Romney — and a begrudging, comparative endorsement from the state’s senior politician, Harry Reid.

But he never gained momentum in the Nevada polls, coming in last place in low-single digits while Romney pulled about 30 percent of the vote.

Huntsman had shunned Nevada, even calling for a GOP-field boycott during the scramble to settle caucus dates to focus his efforts solely on New Hampshire. He gained some momentum there, coming in third in the Granite State primary last week -- but it wasn’t enough to carry him through South Carolina, where there are more than enough Christian conservative voters to go around, but the somewhat smaller body of Republicans Huntsman might have been able to attract seem to have all coalesced around Romney, or libertarian candidate Ron Paul.

Huntsman said though he was suspending his campaign, he would continue to “fight for a flatter, simpler tax code” and push this country to “stop nation-building overseas and start rebuilding our own nation.” He encouraged the party, coalesced around Romney, to “talk directly to the American people about how our conservative ideas will create jobs, reduce debt, stabilize energy prices and provide a better future for our children and grandchildren.”

It’s not clear what role Huntsman will take on, if any, in the Romney campaign.

Romney, who is enjoying a wide lead over his rivals, already made history by being the first non-incumbent GOP presidential candidate to win Iowa and New Hampshire; if he wins South Carolina, the nomination's basically in the bag.