George Pataki, the former three-term governor of New York who undertook a long-shot presidential bid that failed to catch fire, withdrew from the presidential race on Tuesday, urging Republicans in a televised message to nominate another candidate who could bring the country together.
In a two-minute advertisement that aired on NBC affiliates in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Pataki, seated before a flickering fire, announced he was suspending his campaign.
The next president must unite the country, Pataki said, "if we're truly going to make America great again," an allusion to the campaign slogan of Donald Trump, whom Pataki has often criticized.
His withdrawal leaves 12 Republican candidates in the field as the battle heads toward its first contest, the Iowa caucuses, a little more than a month away.
Pataki announced his campaign in May, urging Republicans in a New Hampshire speech to court a racially diverse array of voters with a message of economic opportunity. His wife, Libby, described him then as a candidate who would appeal to Republican moderates, and Pataki concentrated his efforts on New Hampshire, where independent voters hold sway.
But Pataki appeared to be an awkward match for the fired-up Republican base of 2016. A supporter of abortion rights and environmental conservation, he faced the narrowest of paths to his party's nomination.
Pataki was one of the most persistent critics of Trump, but his brand of blue-state Republicanism failed to secure him a distinctive space in a crowded presidential field and he watched as Republican governors of more recent vintage, led by Chris Christie of New Jersey, outflanked him in New Hampshire.
Dave Currier, a former New Hampshire state senator who was supporting Pataki, said the former governor had described his decision as a practical matter: With money low and few campaign staff members, Currier said, the Pataki effort "didn't have the resources here to really put it together."