The Washington Post’s Robert Costa and Ben Terris report that Carson’s campaign for president is not long for this world. Carson will send an email to supporters today indicating that he does not see a “path forward.” He plans to skip Thursday’s GOP debate, but will make a speech at CPAC on Friday. In a very Carson-esque twist, however, he will not formally suspend his campaign.
While there were reports last night that Carson was being offered the opportunity to run for Marco Rubio’s vacated Florida Senate seat in exchange for dropping out of the race, there is not yet any indication that he has plans to run for any other office in 2016.
Carson never won a primary election or even came in the top three, but he briefly overtook Donald Trump in national polls in November. But then the Paris attacks changed the race, and Carson, whose confused, word salad-y answers on foreign policy became the stuff of legend, quickly fell behind.
Carson was a fundraising machine early in the race, but the majority of that money stayed in-house, fueling speculation that the whole campaign was really a money-making enterprise. As soon as that speculation became widespread, his funds rapidly began to dry up.