Aide says Huntsman dropping out

WASHINGTON – Jon Huntsman will withdraw today from the race for the Republican presidential nomination, his campaign manager told the Associated Press on Sunday.

Huntsman will endorse Mitt Romney at an event in South Carolina, campaign manager Matt David said. Huntsman believes Romney is the best candidate to beat President Barack Obama in November, David said.

Huntsman plans to make the official announcement today.

The former Utah governor placed third in last week’s New Hampshire primary despite devoting most of his campaign resources to the state. He had already acknowledged that expectations for him in South Carolina’s primary this week will be “very low.”

Word of the Huntsman withdrawal came on the same day the State, South Carolina’s largest newspaper, endorsed him for president.

The endorsement said there were “two sensible, experienced grownups in the race,” referring to Romney and Huntsman. But it said Huntsman “is more principled, has a far more impressive resume and offers a significantly more important message.”

Huntsman’s résumé suggested he could be a major contender for the GOP nomination: businessman, diplomat, governor, veteran of four presidential administrations, an expert on China and on foreign trade. With a personal fortune based on his family’s global chemical company, he could be a late entry into the nomination contest without necessarily hobbling his campaign.

Yet Huntsman was almost invisible in a race often dominated by Romney, a fellow Mormon. One reason was timing. For months, Romney and other declared or expected-to-declare candidates drew media attention and wooed voters in early primary states. Huntsman, meanwhile, was half a world away, serving as ambassador to China until he resigned in late April. Nearly two more months would pass before his kickoff speech on June 22 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

Huntsman positioned himself as a tax-cutting, budget-balancing chief executive and former business executive who could rise above partisan politics. That would prove to be a hard sell to the conservatives dominating the early voting contests, especially in an election cycle marked by bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats and a boiling antipathy for President Barack Obama.

Huntsman also tried to offer a different tenor, promising a campaign marked by civility. “I don’t think you need to run down somebody’s reputation in order to run for the office of president,” he said.