NEW YORK, Dec. 29 (UPI) — Longshot Republican presidential candidate George Pataki has decided to suspend his campaign, two of his supporters said Tuesday.
Pataki was expected to make a formal announcement of his dropping out Tuesday night, they said.
A three-term governor of New York, Pataki launched a campaign that never gained much traction. In the polls, he consistently finished at the bottom of the GOP pack.
Pataki’s departure leaves 12 Republicans in the field about a month before the first caucus of 2016 in Iowa.
One of his supporters, real estate developer Earle I. Mack, said Pataki’s moderate stance may have been the biggest reason he failed to attract much of a following, The New York Times reported.
Pataki served as governor of New York between 1995 and 2006
