DES MOINES, Iowa — Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota ended her bid for the Republican presidential nomination Wednesday after her last-place finish in Iowa’s lead-off precinct caucuses.
The people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, so I decided to stand aside,” Bachmann said at an emotional news conference, flanked by her family, hours after the results of Tuesday’s contest were announced. “I have no regrets, none whatsoever. We never compromised our principles.”
The conservative congresswoman’s decision, widely expected following her dismal Iowa showing, leaves her supporters up for grabs and could be a boost for former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Bachmann, 55, had told a small group of supporters Tuesday night that she was staying in the race as the only true conservative who could defeat President Barack Obama. But hours later, she announced her exit, capping a deep and long slide for a candidate who entered the campaign last summer with high expectations.
There was great excitement among Republican activists when she began her campaign, and she translated that into a solid win in the Iowa straw poll.
But Bachmann soon ran into a series of organizational and financial hurdles. Key staff members left to join the campaign of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Her fund-raising trailed that of virtually all of her rivals.
Bachmann did not take questions after her announcement nor did she talk about her plans, including whether she would endorse another Republican for the presidential nomination or even whether she would seek re-election to Congress.
“I look forward to the next chapter in God’s plan,” Bachmann said. “I’m grateful to have been a part of this presidential contest.”
She blamed her campaign’s demise on her straight-shooting, uncompromising approach to the issues. She campaigned as a hard-liner on social issues such as abortion and gay rights, and she argued for a massive shrinking of the federal government.
“I didn’t tell you what the polls said you wanted to hear,” Bachmann said.
She made it clear her public career was not over, even as she didn’t lay out what direction it would take.
“I’ll continue to fight for you, for more liberty and to stop the overspending in Washington,” Bachmann said. “I mean what I say, and I say what I mean.”
Although not endorsing any candidate, Bachmann said “we should rally around the person” who wins the nomination.
It was only five months ago that Bachmann, an Iowa native, captured the Ames Straw Poll, a test of a candidate’s strength among influential conservatives in Iowa. The victory appeared to establish her as a force to be reckoned with.
But that never came to be — and Bachmann’s decline was quick and irreversible. Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s entrance into the race siphoned news media attention and money. A series of uneven debate performances, gaffes, factual errors and staff defections weakened her standing with voters.
Bachmann watched as other candidates caught fire and then fizzled: Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich. But she never had her second moment in the sun. And when the time came for social conservatives in Iowa to make their choice, they overwhelmingly sided with Santorum.
Bachmann ended up receiving just 5% of the vote.
A tea party favorite who liked to boast about her “titanium spine” and made her opposition to the Democratic health care initiative the center of her campaign, Bachmann now returns to the House. She has not yet decided whether to run for re-election next year in her central Minnesota district.
Minnesota Republicans are known to be looking for a marquee candidate to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar this year. But a spokeswoman for Bachmann said Wednesday that there had been no time for discussions about her political future.
Bachmann lost her campaign manager, Ed Rollins, in September as her poll numbers began to crash. Her New Hampshire staff resigned in October, and last week, her Iowa point man, state Sen. Kent Sorenson, left her campaign to support Paul.
Rollins told Fox News after the Iowa caucuses that “she just didn’t make the sale.” Rollins also pointed out that Bachmann must deal with a redrawn congressional district should she decide to seek re-election.