Republican Candidate Fred Thompson Ends Bid For Presidency

By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) – Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson quit the Republican presidential race on Tuesday, after a string of poor finishes in early primary and caucus states.

“Today, I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort,” Thompson said in a statement.

Thompson’s fate was sealed last Saturday in the South Carolina primary, when he finished third in a state that he had said he needed to win. In the statement, Thompson did not say whether he would endorse any of his former rivals.

He was one of a handful of members of Congress who supported Arizona Sen. John McCain in 2000 in his unsuccessful race against George W. Bush for the party nomination.

The actor-politician best known as the gruff district attorney on NBC’s “Law & Order” placed third in Iowa and South Carolina, two states seemingly in line with his right-leaning pitch and laid-back style, and fared even worse in the four other states that have held contests thus far.

Money already tight, he ran out of it altogether as the losses piled up. Thompson departs the most wide open Republican race in half a century; three candidates each having won in the six states that have voted.

In Florida, McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are battling for the lead ahead of its Jan. 29 primary, while former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee evaluates his next steps amid money troubles of his own.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)