Jon Huntsman Jr., former governor of Utah, has withdrawn himself from the race for the Republican presidential nomination today. It is no surprise that Huntsman has not been doing very well at the Republican presidential race especially after finishing third in the New Hampshire primary. Huntsman had spent lots of time in his campaign in New Hampshire, but still his efforts were not enough. Even in South Carolina were he tried to get a boost, he still placed at the bottom of the South Carolina polls.
Coming into the Republican presidential race, Huntsman had already a disadvantage since he entered the race in June, much after many of his Republican rivals. Huntsman was forced to compete with rivals like Romney who had already created campaign organizations and fundraising networks. It did not help that he served as Obama’s first ambassador to China either. Even though he resigned, some Republican voters viewed his work in the Obama administration skeptically. In addition, Huntsman was behind his rivals in fundraising; his campaign had around $3.1 million debts by September. Since the beginning of his campaign, Huntsman had tried to differentiate himself from the other candidates. Later he tried to draw sharp contrast between himself and Romney. Which is why I find it curious that after his announcement that he will drop out of the race, his spokesman stated to The New York Times that Huntsman will endorse Mitt Romney at an event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Now that the Republican candidates will have to split the vote, who do you think will most benefit from Huntsman dropping from the race? Will Huntsman support for Romney help him win South Carolina?
3 comments:
I do not find it that surprising that Huntsman will endorse Romney. After opposing each other in 2008 as possible Republican nominees, Romney endorsed McCain when it became clear that McCain was the frontrunner. Now, McCain has endorsed Romney. Once Huntsman realized he could not win, he undoubtedly wanted to endorse the candidate he thought has the best chance of securing the Republican nomination, and ultimately, of defeating President Obama. Thus, while they obviously had their differences, I think Huntsman believes that Romney can do the best job of the candidates that remain in the race.
As of now, the Gallup polls do not show that Huntsman has withdrawn, so it is unclear yet as to who will benefit from Huntsman's departure. My guess is that his endorsement of Romney will increase Romney's support, and could help him win South carolina.
I'm pretty sure that Huntsman endorsing Romney will help Romney to a certain extent. Obviously if a political candidate drops out of a race, his supporters have to go somewhere. By Huntsman enforcing Romney, it causes Huntsman's supporters to swing towards Romney as well. Overall, this could significantly help Romney with South Carolina or it could barely help him at all. All we do know for certain is that this will somewhat help Romney in the republican candidate election.
Frankly, I'm shocked that Huntsman stayed in the race for this long. I was expecting him to withdraw much sooner. As was mentioned, the fact that he had been the ambassador to China under the Obama administration is definitely something that many Republicans would say good job about. He was too close to president Obama (from a Republican perspective) and, as a result, would never be the Republican nominee for president.
Concerning the endorsement of Romney, it does make some sense. As a candidate that dropped out of the running, what better way to ensure that you have some chance the next election period then by backing the person most likely to be the nominee? This way, he can say that he is part of the party and nothing like the Obama sympathizer that people think he is. This being said, I don't think this will actually help Romney. On one note, potential voters who see Huntsman as the Obama in disguise might put that on Romney as a result. However, what is much more likely is that there really aren't a whole lot of Huntsman supporters to gain. He has pretty much always been trailing behind the rest of the candidates and South Carolina isn't much different. So while Huntsman's endorsement might help Romney, I doubt it is going to be really noticeable.
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