Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump.

The surprise video announcement comes ahead of this week's New Hampshire Republican primary, where Mr DeSantis was polling in the single digits.

The conservative lawmaker said that he didn't "have a clear path to victory" when announcing the end of his campaign.

His departure leaves Nikki Haley as Mr Trump's only significant rival.

Despite the grim news for his supporters, Mr DeSantis said his campaign "left it all out on the field" in the nearly five-minute long video on X.

"If there was anything I could do to produce a favourable outcome - more campaign stops, more interviews - I would do it," he said, as he ended his seven-month campaign.

Mr DeSantis added that he was endorsing Mr Trump because it had "become clear" that "a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance".

While the Florida governor acknowledged "disagreements" with Mr Trump, he said he is "superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden".

"That is clear," he added. "I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honour that pledge."

Additionally, Mr DeSantis took a swipe at Ms Haley - Mr Trump's only remaining significant Republican opposition - calling her a member of "the old Republican guard of yesteryear - a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism".

Ms Haley offered only a brief response to Mr DeSantis' departure on Sunday, telling reporters "may the best woman win".

Mr DeSantis narrowly finished ahead of Ms Haley in last week's Iowa caucus with 21% of the vote, compared to her 19%. Mr Trump, by comparison, received 51% of the vote.

At the time, the Florida Governor framed the second-place finish as a victory, claiming that his campaign "got our ticket punched out of Iowa". Mr DeSantis contended that meant that half of the voters in Iowa wanted to support someone other than the former president.

But Mr DeSantis had spent the bulk of his time and resources in recent months campaigning in all 99 of the state's counties and courting its conservative evangelical voters, which made it difficult to sell his loss to Mr Trump as a win.

His departure from the race now allows Mr DeSantis to avoid a potentially further embarrassing third-place finish in New Hampshire to Ms Haley, who has focused far more of her resources in the state.

A person familiar with DeSantis' election night plans in New Hampshire was completely caught off guard by the news of DeSantis' exit, however.

The source told the BBC the campaign had just confirmed plans with them on Saturday for their election night bash this coming Tuesday.

There were some early indications that this news might be on the horizon. Mr DeSantis had dropped out of several planned media hits on Sunday and had a single event scheduled in New Hampshire.

Chris Ager, the state committee chair of New Hampshire's Republican Party, told the BBC that "the race has been moving toward a one-vs-one between Trump and Haley for awhile."

"This makes it so," he added. (BBC)

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