Former Utah Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman will drop out of the GOP race on Monday and will endorse former component Mitt Romney. The decision for Huntsman to drop out was a family decision made on Sunday. John Rainy, an influential businessman and member of Huntsman’s South Carolina finance team, reportedly says he was completely flat-footed when he received the call from one of Huntsman’s advisors on Sunday night. He was scheduled for a meeting with Huntsman on Tuesday.
The former United States Ambassador to China was to compete on Saturday in the South Carolina primary after finishing third in the New Hampshire primary. On endorsing Romney, a senior official of the former Utah governor said, “Gov. Huntsman did not want to stand in the way of the candidate best prepared to beat (President) Barack Obama and turn our economy around. That’s Mitt Romney.”
