Brendan McDermid
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) speaks during a campaign event
"While we have run a campaign that has made a real difference, I have concluded this is not my time," Graham said in an email to supporters.
Graham has failed to gain traction in polls since entering the race. But he has been a vocal presence on the campaign trail, regularly rebutting Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's inflammatory statements about Muslims and Mexican immigrants and advocating a hawkish foreign policy worldview that would put American troops on the ground in Syria.
"Four months ago, at the very first debate, I said that any candidate that didn't understand we need more American troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIL was not ready to be commander in chief," Graham said in a video to supporters announcing his decision. "At that time, no one stepped forward to join me. Today, most of my fellow candidates have come to recognize this is what's needed to secure our homeland."
At multiple points during the campaign, he openly expressed exasperation about the phenomenon of Trump.
"The No. 1 guy is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people?" Graham asked in late October.
Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), Graham's biggest ally in the race, said Republicans had been stripped of their "most qualified, thoughtful, fearless, and honest" candidate with Graham's exit..
"Republicans lost our most qualified, thoughtful, fearless and honest presidential candidate, not to mention the candidate with the best (and it seemed sometimes the only) sense of humor," he said in a statement. "Despite the disadvantages he faced in resources and debate opportunities, Lindsey's message of serious statesmanship and problem-solving in public affairs, his forthright opposition to policies and attitudes that would endanger our country and reflect poorly on our party, and his genuine decency and humility won him many new admirers."
More to come...