Rick Perry the first to exit 2016 race

For the past couple weeks, the writing was on the wall for the Perry campaign as staffers went unpaid and campaign offices began to close. The donations simply dried up and former Texas Governor Rick Perry saw no path moving forward. Though he was slated to appear in the early round debate on Wednesday, he opted to exit the campaign last Friday.

Report from KPRC Houston:

Out of money and relegated once again to the back-of-the-pack debate, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday dropped out of the race for president, ending his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination and becoming the first major candidate of the 2016 campaign to give up on the White House.

The longest-serving governor in Texas history, who had never lost an election until he started running for president, told a group of conservative activists in St. Louis that “some things have become clear” and that it was time to suspend his campaign.

“We have a tremendous field of candidates — probably the greatest group of men and women,” Perry said. “I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, as long as we listen to the grassroots, listen to that cause of conservatism. If we do that, then our party will be in good hands.”

As the article points out, there is no reason Perry couldn’t have continued with a skeleton crew and participated in the debate on Wednesday. However, he did the smart thing which was to realize, at this point, he did not have a path to the nomination and was not getting the support he needed. He was getting two or three percent sometimes depending on the poll, his exit may end up being marginal in terms of where his supporters go now that he’s out.