Former Governor of New York George Pataki ended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination for 2016 with only just more than one month left prior to the first caucuses starting.
Pataki made his announcement in an ad aired on affiliates of NBC in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina on Tuesday night.
In the ad, he said that while it was the end of his journey to reach the White House, he was confident the Republicans can elect the correct person, someone who could bring the country together and understand that the president as well as other politicians must be servants of the people and not their masters.
A local official and a Pataki steering committee member said the former governor had called Tuesday to tell them he was leaving the race. He added that the campaign had been having trouble raising funds and garnering media attention.
Another member of the steering committee said that he had spoken to Pataki on Tuesday and that the former governor spoke about a need to unify both the country and party.
Pataki hung hopes on finishing well in New Hampshire one of the early voting states, but has not hardly registered in the national or state polls.
He never was able to make it onto the debate stage for the GOP, where he would have had the opportunity to reach millions and that led to trouble raising needed funds.
Pataki appeared to be frustrated by the rise of Trump and zeroed in on him during the undercard debate in early December, declaring the real estate mogul from New York was unfit to become the U.S. President.
He called Trump the know-nothing candidate of today and he said he could not be the GOP’s nominee.
