Jon Huntsman will be dropping out of the race for the Republican 2012 nomination today in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and will be endorsing Mitt Romney.
Huntsman is currently 6th in the national and South Carolina polls.
The current shape of the Republican primary polling is as follows:
Nationally
| Candidate | Percent Support | Points Behind |
| Mitt Romney | 29.4% | 0 |
| Newt Gingrich | 16.4% | -13.0% |
| Rick Santorum | 14.4% | -15.0% |
| Ron Paul | 13.0% | -16.4% |
| Rick Perry | 6.6% | -22.8% |
| Jon Huntsman | 3.2% | -26.2% |
South Carolina
| Candidate | Percent Support | Points Behind |
| Mitt Romney | 29.7% | 0 |
| Newt Gingrich | 22.0% | -7.7% |
| Ron Paul | 15.0% | -14.7% |
| Rick Santorum | 14.3% | -15.4% |
| Rick Perry | 5.7% | -24.0% |
| Jon Huntsman | 5.3% | -24.4% |
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Jon Huntsman will drop out of the Republican presidential race and endorse Mitt Romney at a press conference here on Monday, RCP has confirmed.
Huntsman had vowed to continue his longshot candidacy after his third-place finish in the New Hampshire primary last week and had spent the last couple of days campaigning in South Carolina, including a retail stop in Charleston on Sunday.
But after failing to improve his position as barely a blip in the polls and with no conceivable path to the GOP nomination, the former Utah governor -- who had attempted to run as a moderate pragmatist in a GOP environment that did not appear to be yearning for one -- made the final determination that he had no feasible path forward.
A campaign official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told RCP that while Huntsman and his family were encouraged by the candidate’s finish in New Hampshire, where he had been mired in fifth-place before a late surge in the days before the primary, they became more realistic upon moving on to South Carolina, where there was little appetite for his candidacy.
Source: Real Clear Politics
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