Washington (CNN) Scott Walker announced Monday he is dropping out of the GOP presidential race. 
 
 The Wisconsin governor entered the primary in July as a front-runner in Iowa and a darling of both the conservative base and powerful donors after winning battles against public unions in his left-leaning home state. But that promising start was quickly dashed after poor debate performances dried up support from donors. 
 
 "Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With this in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately," Walker said at a news conference in Madison, Wisconsin. 
 
 He encouraged other trailing Republican candidates to follow his path. 
 
 "I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so that the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner," said Walker, referencing businessman Donald Trump. "This is fundamentally important to the future of our party, and, more important, the future of the country." 
 
 The governor called some of his top supporters earlier Monday afternoon informing them of his decision, according to one Walker insider. This person said Walker's recent plummet in the polls was a big factor in his decision-making. 
 
 He sounded "upbeat," they said, and his message to supporters was, "I did the best I could." 
 
 Walker made "the Pawlenty decision," one strategist said, referring to former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's 2011 decision to drop out before piling up considerable debt. 
 
 This decision came as no surprise to people working in Madison, one of whom described the last several weeks as "agony." 
 
 Moving forward, Walker said the best use of his and the party's time would be to dedicate all resources to the eventual nominee. 
 
 Walker's exit comes 10 days after former Texas Gov. Rick Perry became the first Republican to drop out of the 2016 race. It indicates the start of a winnowing process of a field that once numbered 17 candidates -- many of whom have struggled to gain oxygen in a summer in which headlines and polls have been dominated by Trump. With Walker's departure, the field stands at 15 candidates. 
 
 Photos: Scott Walker's career Photos: Scott Walker's career Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped out of the presidential race on Monday, September 21. He was seeking the Republican Party's nomination. Hide Caption 1 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker fields questions from Bruce Rastetter at the Iowa Agriculture Summit on March 7, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. Hide Caption 2 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker speaks at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. on February 26, 2015. Hide Caption 3 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker speaks to guests at the Iowa Freedom Summit on January 24, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Hide Caption 4 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker speaks at his election night party November 4, 2014, in West Allis, Wisconsin. Walker defeated the Democratic challenger Mary Burke. Hide Caption 5 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker shakes hands with Democrat challenger Mary Burke before facing off in a debate at the WMVS-TV studios October, 17, 2014, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 6 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker has a scarf put on his head during a special service at the Sikh Religious Society of Wisconsin for the victims of the shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin the previous day, on August 6, 2012, in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 7 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition spring leadership meeting at The Venetian Las Vegas on March 29, 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Scott Walker (left) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) before a meeting as Iowa Governor Terry Branstad (right) looks on at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 15, 2013. Hide Caption 9 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker poses with a woman during the Republican National Convention at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on August 28, 2012, in Tampa, Florida. Hide Caption 10 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker prepares to cast his ballot at Jefferson School to vote in the gubernatorial recall election June 5, 2012, in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 11 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker (right) listens to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speak as they campaign at the Waukesha Victory Center on May 24, 2012, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 12 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker addresses the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum April 13, 2012, in St. Louis, Missouri. Hide Caption 13 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker stands on the North Lawn of the White House before making remarks to the news media after a meeting of the National Governors Association with President Barack Obama on February 27, 2012. Hide Caption 14 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career President Barack Obama receives a Milwaukee Brewers baseball jersey from Walker (left) as he disembarks from Air Force One upon arrival at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 15, 2012. Hide Caption 15 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker listens during the 2011 Governors Summit of U.S. Chamber of Commerce June 20, 2011, in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 16 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Members of Code Pink (left to right) Medea Benjamin, Liz Hourican and Tighe Barry, hold signs to protest as Walker (center) takes his seat during a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee April 14, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Hide Caption 17 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker holds a letter from democratic State Sen. Mark Miller, one of the fourteen Wisconsin state senators who fled the state over two weeks ago, during a press conference on March 7, 2011, in Madison, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 18 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker holds up a 'Wisconsin is open for business' bumper sticker as he speaks during a ceremonial bill signing outside his office at the Wisconsin State Capitol on March 11, 2011, in Madison, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 19 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker delivers his budget address to a joint session of the legislature at the capitol March 1, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 20 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career Walker speaks at a news conference inside the Wisconsin State Capitol February 21, 2011, in Madison, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 21 of 22 Photos: Scott Walker's career President Obama receives a Green Bay Packers NFL football team jersey with 'Obama #1' written on it from Walker (left) at Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on January 26, 2011. Hide Caption 22 of 22 
 
 The New York Times first reported Walker's plans to drop out. Those intentions were confirmed to CNN by a senior campaign official, a GOP strategist close to the campaign, and a senior GOP adviser with knowledge of his plans. 
 
 Walker rocketed to the front of the GOP pack in Iowa after a rousing speech at the Iowa Freedom Summit in January -- and subsequently, his campaign pinned its hopes on the first state to vote in the presidential nominating process. 
 
 But Walker was hurt by lackluster performances in the first two Republican debates. And his poll numbers suffered: In a CNN/ORC poll released Sunday , Walker failed to garner even one-half of 1% nationally among likely GOP primary voters. 
 
 A GOP strategist close to the campaign told CNN that Walker "is a pragmatist above all else and just didn't see the path to a comeback." 
 
 The strategist also said that the Walker campaign left last week's CNN debate feeling alright, but quickly realized the outside reaction was flat at best. This source added that the national polling drop was troubling but it was the collapse in Iowa that hit hardest, as that state was to serve as "our launchpad." 
 
 "Hard to see a path for us without Iowa," one source said. 
 
 There had always been hope in the Walker campaign that Trump supporters were not active caucus-goers, the source said, but it was hard to fight the popularity of both front-runner Trump and Ben Carson. 
 
 Walker was also hurt by reversals on a host of controversial issues -- including birthright citizenship, on which he gave three different answers in the span of seven days. Those reversals were particularly damaging to his outsider image as non-politicians like Trump, Carson and Carly Fiorina climbed the polls. 
 
 Walker delayed entering the campaign in part to raise money for his super PAC, which posted a $20 million haul in the first half of 2015. 
 
 But once it launched, the campaign appeared to be bedeviled by a lack of hard dollars that it needed to pay staff, travel the country and pay filing fees to state parties. It will not be known how much money the Walker campaign raised -- or how quickly it burned through it -- until October 15, when the federal campaign finance reports are made public. 
 
 "The money dried up -- and it dried up right after the Cleveland debate, and we never could get it back," a source close to Walker said of the August 6 debate. 
 
 The super PAC will "wind down our existing efforts and return remaining resources to supporters," according to a spokesman for the group. 
 
 Aimee Locke, a top Texas fundraiser for Walker, said she got no advance notice from the campaign, but said people in her network began to worry as CNN's new poll results showed Walker with less than 1% support nationally. 
 
 "We were told that they were going to be some changes made, but we had no idea that this was the change that was going to be made," she said. 
 
 Walker's exit is now almost certain to set off a fierce scramble for his big-money backers, led by the Ricketts family that has emerged as one of the GOP's most powerful financial contributors. Todd Ricketts, the campaign's finance chair, was scheduled to host a fundraiser for Walker in New York on Thursday. 
 
 Trump complimented Walker on Twitter after the news of his decision broke. 
 
 "I got to know @ScottWalker well -- he's a very nice person and has a great future," he said. 
 
 I got to know @ScottWalker well—he's a very nice person and has a great future. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2015 
 
 South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, also a GOP presidential contender, said Walker made the decision that was "best for him and his family." 
 
 "You are down to 15. You got three basketball teams. The bottomline is Scott made a decision best for him and his family," Graham said. "He's a very accomplished governor and it shows you just how hard it is running with this many people. That's what it shows." 
 
 AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka had some choice words for Walker -- best known for his anti-union efforts. 
 
 "Scott Walker is still a disgrace, just no longer national," Trumka said. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Even before Scott Walker dropped out of the race for president, his Republican rivals for the White House were chasing after the remnants of his once high-flying campaign. 
 
 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pauses as he speaks at a news conference Monday, Sept. 21, 2015, in Madison, Wis., where he announced that he is suspending his Republican presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Morry... (Associated Press) 
 
 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at a news conference Monday, Sept. 21, 2015, in Madison, Wis., where he announced that he is suspending his Republican presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) (Associated Press) 
 
 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at a news conference Monday, Sept. 21, 2015, in Madison, Wis., where he announced that he is suspending his Republican presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) (Associated Press) 
 
 Walker's opponents openly gossiped about the Wisconsin governor's political challenges as they gathered in California for last week's presidential debate. Once he formally left the race Monday afternoon, the jockeying only intensified. 
 
 As Walker was calling it quits during a news conference at home in Wisconsin, his national finance co-chairman, Anthony Scaramucci, was fielding calls from five campaigns — including from three candidates themselves. 
 
 "Out of respect to him, I want to talk to him before I do anything with anyone else," said Scaramucci, who was on deck to host several New York City fundraisers for Walker this week. 
 
 By the end of the night, several campaigns had moved from outreach to bragging about who from Walker's team they had won over. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz talked up additions in Iowa, Georgia and Nevada. Former Walker supporters in Iowa and New Hampshire said they were now in for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. 
 
 Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called Walker a "great public servant" — and quickly urged Walker's supporters to consider him. Walker had a large Iowa organization, complete with leaders in each of its 99 counties, and Bush said he and his team were trying to win them over. 
 
 "That's been some of the effort this afternoon and going forward," Bush told reporters after a campaign stop in northern Iowa. "We're working them hard for sure." 
 
 Warning that the 2016 campaign had become too nasty, Walker said Monday he's "being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top." While stepping aside, he urged others to quit, too — suggesting that a smaller pool of candidates would be better positioned to take down Republican front-runner Donald Trump. 
 
 "I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same, so the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner," Walker said. 
 
 None are expected to do so anytime soon. 
 
 Ohio Gov. John Kasich distributed a fundraising appeal 90 minutes after Walker's announcement noting that he's "the only Midwestern governor in the race who can bring our values to Washington, D.C." Former technology executive Carly Fiorina is surging on the back of a strong performance in the second GOP debate. 
 
 Some in the party suggested the biggest beneficiary of Walker's exit may be Rubio, who, like Walker, is considered a fresh face with the ability to unify the GOP's divided factions. 
 
 Both men are under 50 and hold a "next-generation appeal," said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who is unaligned in the race, but offered his California home to Walker for a post-debate fundraiser last week. 
 
 "They're both ideological without being uncompromising, and they have both earned their conservative stripes," Luntz said, noting Walker's fight with public-employee unions and Rubio's battle with then-Republican favorite Charlie Crist in the GOP contest for Florida Senate in 2010. 
 
 Walker and Rubio also share a personal connection and acknowledged early speculation that they might run on the same ticket. 
 
 "It was personally hard, but you know when it's over," said Cliff Hurst, who was Walker's New Hampshire co-chairman. Yet he said he had recently turned his attention to Rubio. "I've always been impressed with his character, his intelligence and his knowledge of how it all works," he said. 
 
 It may take weeks for a clear picture to emerge of the political landscape without Walker. But with several of the more than a dozen candidates still in the race registering in the low single digits in national polls, the competition for Walker's staff and donor network will only intensify in the coming days. 
 
 Within minutes of Walker's announcement, the Chicago-based Ricketts family was bombarded with calls from six GOP campaigns, including from some of the candidates themselves, a person close to the family said. 
 
 The billionaire family is likely be very active in the primary process as donors to someone else, but they don't immediately know who that person will be, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss private conversations with the family. 
 
 "Our nation's future is at stake," said Todd Ricketts, who served as a national finance co-chairman for Walker. "And while I was proud to help Gov. Walker, I will keep working hard to make our country a better place." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Tom Beaumont and Catherine Lucey in Des Moines, Iowa, and Kathleen Ronayne in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. ||||| Scott Walker is now officially out, announcing at a press conference Monday that he was withdrawing from the presidential contest so that a “positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field” and buttress the current frontrunner, Donald Trump. 
 
 Amounting to one of the shortest presidential campaigns in modern history –- lasting just 71 days -– Walker had seen his polling numbers crater in recent months compared to the time ahead of his entry into the field, when he was widely viewed as one of the most promising contenders. 
 
 Running as a Washington outsider and heralded for his success in pushing through conservative reforms in the politically purple state of Wisconsin, Walker’s campaign began to lose steam almost as soon as it was launched. 
 
 So what happened? 
 
 After polling as the frontrunner in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa for the better part of the year, Walker’s numbers began to slip in Iowa and nationally as Trump surged to the top of the field. In the most recent national poll, released by CNN/ORC over the weekend, Walker registered just 0.5 percent. And in Iowa, Walker slid from 19 percent to 5 percent in just six weeks of NBC News/Marist polling. 
 
 In addition to Trump’s climb, Walker’s fall was abetted by his own lackluster performance in the first debate and a series of missteps in articulating his position on immigration reform and at one time suggesting that he considered building a wall with Canada to be a “legitimate idea.” 
 
 But Walker’s hasty exit from the Republican nominating contest was about more than just sagging poll numbers and sloppy statements. It was about money, sources told ABC News. 
 
 Walker's campaign did not file its financials with the Federal Election Commission because of the short time it was in existence. 
 
 The size and scope of Walker’s campaign, which was reportedly comprised of some 90 paid staff, had been built for a frontrunner. And when Walker failed to perform as such, the fundraising simply couldn’t keep up with the operation. 
 
 Reed Galen, a Republican political consultant who served as John McCain deputy campaign manager until July 2007, points out that the campaign never had the benefit of frontrunner status while Walker was actually in the race, since Walker’s strongest stretch in the polls – particularly in Iowa – came before he was a declared candidate. 
 
 “The campaign did not exist with the benefit of being a frontrunner,” Galeen said. “And so now you're in a place where you thought you would be in first place … you get a heightened sense of your success based on 42 minutes at a podium, then a lackluster performance at the first debate, he’s had a number of issue on immigration and birthright citizenship, and all these things aggregate together in a noxious mix.” 
 
 And while Walker did have a Super PAC raising money for him during that time, Super PACs alone cannot support campaigns. 
 
 “Regardless of how much Super PAC money you have behind you, these candidates have to take a good hard look at their prospects and say I could keep doing this, but let’s be realistic and wake up on Tuesday morning, am I going to be in a better place?” Galeen said. “Do I have the time to get to the next debate, which is the next opportunity for me to make a splash.” 
 
 A few days ago, Walker had reshuffled his campaign calendar to refocus his efforts on Iowa and South Carolina, two states where his message had shown early promise among the conservative Evangelical base of voters. But even with a focus on those states, Walker’s campaign was facing organizational woes. 
 
 Duane Cottingham, an Iowa political activist who was supporting Walker’s efforts in the caucus state, said he was upset to hear the news of Walker’s decision to exit the race but that the campaign failed to mobilize the grassroots support and organization that is so necessary to winning the caucuses there. 
 
 “They had volunteers and they never learned to use them,” Cottingham said. “No successful campaign that I’ve ever encountered can operate successfully without tying the finance organization to the campaign organization, and this one never got there.” 
 
 For his part, Cottingham was also a small-scale donor to the campaign and said he’d like to know where his money went. “How could they spend so much and accomplish so little?” 
 
 Richard Schwarm, a former state chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, said he remains surprised by Walker’s tumble from favor in the state and said the campaign would have likely benefitted from the Iowa straw poll, a decades-long tradition which the state GOP retired this year, and would have come at a time when Walker maintained strength in the polls. 
 
 “I think he would have benefited if he could have gotten out and built for that and find out if you do have an organization,” Schwarm said. “But too many people were committed to it not continuing that it wasn’t going to continue.” 
 
 Stanley Hubbard, a Minnesota media mogul who had previously been one of Walker’s top donors, told ABC News in an interview prior to the news that he was dropping out of the race, that he was planning to withdraw his exclusive support from Walker and give money to a number of other Republican candidates, including Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson. Hubbard also recommended media coaching to the governor as a means to improve the power of his messaging. 
 
 “Why does one person come across and someone else doesn’t?” Hubbard said. “I’ve been in TV business a long time and there are ways you can get training to get your message across.” 
 
 “And if Scott can’t figure that out, he might as well drop out,” Hubbard added. 
 
 And drop out he did. ||||| Before there was Donald Trump or Ben Carson or Carly Fiorina, there was Scott Walker — a defiant outsider who portrayed himself as the regular-guy champion of the GOP’s burn-the-Beltway base. 
 
 After a promising start last winter, the two-term Wisconsin governor turned out to be a tentative and mistake-prone candidate who badly fumbled core Republican issues — especially birthright citizenship — that Trump and other top GOP candidates handled with relative ease. 
 
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 Several senior Republicans with knowledge of his campaign said the 47-year-old Walker — who won two elections and survived a recall effort without the help of national consultants — was simply too confident in his own abilities and often acted, ineptly, as his own campaign manager. 
 
 “The impression I had,” said one veteran GOP operative, “was that Scott was making it up as he went along.” 
 
 “It’s no longer about just backing an outsider in principle; people want somebody who is completely outside the system,” says Heather Stancil, co-chair of the Madison County, Iowa Republican Committee — an area that was supposed to be a Walker electoral stronghold. 
 
 “It makes me scratch my head; the only thing I can attribute Walker’s failure to is that people do not want someone tainted by any relation to government at all,” she added. “They are so fed up they don’t trust anybody. He said he was an outsider, but he also had that taint of working in government.” 
 
 His stunning fall, from top tier hopeful to a so-called “asterisk candidate” who couldn’t break 1 percent in the latest CNN poll, also illustrated the limits of fundraising in a 2016 that was supposed to be dominated by unregulated campaign spending. Both Walker and former Gov. Rick Perry, who dropped out earlier this month, represent a two-man money-couldn’t-buy-them-love club on the sidelines. Super PACs affiliated with Perry and Walker raised millions in the weeks leading up to their collapses — Walker’s alone banked more than $20 million. 
 
 But Walker had far less success raising hard money for his campaign and struggled to bankroll staffers in the states and travel. 
 
 Walker, a deeply religious evangelical Christian who waged a years-long battle against public employee unions in his home state while touting his back-of-Harley working-class roots, had an impressive entrance into the race. He delivered a powerful defense of economic and cultural conservatism in a fiery speech at Rep. Steve King’s Iowa Freedom Summit in January in which he talked about braving a union sympathizer’s threat to gut his wife “like a deer.” 
 
 But angry as Walker was — his super PAC was named “Unintimidated” — he just wasn’t quite angry enough. 
 
 Liz Mair, a former Walker aide who was fired earlier this year, took to Twitter on Monday to enumerate the mistakes her one-time boss had made — and said he often seemed overmatched by the velocity and information overload inherent in a modern presidential campaign. 
 
 At the top of her list: “Not educating himself fast enough on issues outside governor's remit” and “Not training himself out of tics incl[uding] instinctively answering 'yes' and 'absolutely' to things, comparing lots of things to union fight.” 
 
 But his sudden exit from the race on Monday (so sudden many staffers learned of their impending unemployment on Twitter) said just as much about the toxicity of the environment as the flaws of the man. Walker’s charisma-free Midwest pique simply couldn’t compete with Trump’s bellowing, telegenic challenge to the party establishment — during a primal-rage 2016 primary season when any candidate with a connection to government starts at a disadvantage. 
 
 Walker’s campaign had been imploding for weeks, but his public low point — and one that made him vulnerable to charges of weakness — was his stumbling response to the birthright citizenship proposal, a quixotic bid to challenge the 14th Amendment guarantee that all people born in the U.S. be given citizenship rights. Over the course of seven days in August, Walker rattled out no fewer than three positions — a call to challenge the amendment, a solid “no” when asked if he planned to challenge existing laws, and a call for the status quo. 
 
 “It's okay to flip-flop, but not as frequently as Flipper. Almost everyone (except Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush) has changed positions in this race. Donald Trump used to be a raging liberal (and perhaps he still is),” wrote conservative blogger Ed Straker, hours before Walker’s fall. “But even Trump, once changing his position, didn't go back and forth and back and forth several times within the space of a few days. … He quickly became known as being squishy on immigration.” 
 
 Until the summer, Walker seemed to have a sturdy regional strategy that seemed Trump-proof. He staked his chances on Iowa’s deeply conservative GOP caucus electorate — and he had a regional hook The Donald couldn’t dream of — having spent part of his childhood in Iowa. But he struggled to stake out an identity beyond his battles with unions. 
 
 “You can say you fought against the unions, and you are a conservative, but eventually you have to have a compelling national policy proposal that captures people’s imagination,” said longtime Republican pollster David Winston. “Walker didn’t have that.” 
 
 To say that he peaked early is an understatement: Walker led the Iowa pack in February with 25 percent and sat in third place nationally for much of the year. He plummeted to 3 percent and 10th place in Iowa by September — and fell off the charts last week. 
 
 The two Republican debates — which might have served as a safety net for his free-falling candidacy — were unmemorable, and his bland passivity at last Wednesday’s otherwise raucous showdown proved fatal. 
 
 On a night when Carly Fiorina rose, instantly, from the ranks of also-rans to second or third place, Walker found himself shut out of the back-and-forth — logging a mere eight minutes of talk time, compared with Trump’s 20 despite his best efforts to interrupt. 
 
 “He was a terrible candidate, but he also got Trump-ed,” said one Walker ally. 
 
 ||||| Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped out of the GOP presidential race Monday evening, urging other candidates to do the same so voters will coalesce around a candidate who can topple front-runner Donald Trump. 
 
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 "The Bible is full of stories of people who were called to be leaders in unusual ways," Walker said in prepared remarks at a press conference in Madison, Wis., recalling when he sat in church the previous day. 
 
 "Today, I believe that I am being called to lead helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field," Walker said. 
 
 "I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same, so the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner," he continued. 
 
 "We need to get back to the basics of our party," the Wisconsin governor added. 
 
 Walker is the second major Republican presidential candidate to end his campaign, following former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who suspended his White House bid on Sept. 11. 
 
 There are 15 candidates still in competition for the Republican presidential nomination. 
 
 "This is a difficult decision, as so many wonderful people stepped up to support our campaign," Walker said, thanking his volunteers, staffers and family. 
 
 "Most of all I want to thank God. I want to thank God for his abundant grace. Win or lose, it has always been more than enough," Walker said. 
 
 Walker said the Republican Party needs to focus on private sector job creation, cutting regulations and emphasizing a strong military. 
 
 Even before he took to the lectern at The Edgewater hotel for his statement, which lasted just shy of four minutes, rival campaigns had started touting on social media that they had poached some of his aides for their own campaigns. 
 
 Still, several Republican opponents offered kind words for Walker on his way out, including Trump, who tweeted before Walker's announcement that "he's a very nice person and has a great future." 
 
 "He remains one of the best governors in the country and I have no doubt that he'll continue the fight for conservative principles," Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a statement. 
 
 "Republicans are lucky to have Scott on our team," Rubio added. 
 
 Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) similarly wished Walker well, tweeting that he believed Walker would "remain a vital voice in the Republican Party." Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Walker has "a proven record of fighting for conservative reforms. I know he'll continue to do that as Governor." 
 
 Walker's poll numbers have plummeted over the past couple of months and recent reports have suggested that his campaign was in financial trouble. His team has been scrambling to reassure nervous donors that he could win in Iowa over the likes of Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. 
 
 Walker had fallen out of the top five in Iowa, an early-voting state where his campaign had focused on gathering support, and his poll numbers dove brutally after the first GOP presidential debate in early August. 
 
 His prospects further soured on Sunday, when a CNN/ORC International Poll found him receiving the support of less than 0.5 percent of Republicans nationally after the second debate last week, where he spoke the least of the 11 candidates on the prime-time stage. Trump, meanwhile, spoke more than twice as much as Walker did. 
 
 Walker, who was reelected to a second term as governor last year after fending off a recall attempt in 2012, had relied heavily on his executive experience in Wisconsin and his battles against public unions there. 
 
 The governor attracted the attention of President Obama and Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, who both traveled to Wisconsin in recent months to criticize the GOP candidate. 
 
 A few GOP contenders have surged in polls in recent weeks, such as former business exec Carly Fiorina, and Rubio. But Walker was only losing support, and he voiced frustration Monday with Trump, whose rise coincided with Walker's fall. 
 
 The Progressive Change Campaign Committee said in a statement on Walker withdrawing from the race that "Donald Trump just handed a victory to unions and working people, and a defeat to one of the worst governors and corporate sell outs in the nation." 
 
 Another liberal group, Americans United for Change, echoed that sentiment while bashing Walker as "one-trick labor bashing pony and the novelty seems to have worn off even among Republican primary voters." 
 
 "Let Walker’s early collapse be a lesson to the other Republicans," the group's president, Brad Woodhouse, said in a statement. "Assaulting the labor movement isn’t just a loser economically, it’s a loser politically." 
 
 Walker said in his brief prepared remarks that he hoped the remaining GOP candidates would find a leader "to refocus the debate" on issues that he pushed for, including a greater focus on private workers. ||||| Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced Monday that he was suspending his campaign for the White House, urging other candidates to follow suit. (Reuters) 
 
 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced Monday that he was suspending his campaign for the White House, urging other candidates to follow suit. (Reuters) 
 
 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who was once considered a formidable candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, announced Monday that he will quit the GOP race in the face of plummeting support and mounting financial difficulties that left him with slim hopes of finding a path to victory. 
 
 The stunning announcement came after two months of mounting problems that had put his once-highflying campaign into a downward spiral. Walker led the polls in Iowa earlier this year, but his standing in recent surveys dropped into single digits. Nationally, his numbers suffered even more. 
 
 Walker bowed out with explicit criticism of the negative tone of the Republican race, which he said had descended into personal attacks, and with thinly veiled crit­icism of front-runner Donald Trump. 
 
 “Today I believe I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field,” Walker said in Madison, Wis. He urged others to do the same to give voters a choice among a limited number of people who can offer “a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner.” 
 
 Walker’s candidacy, like those of other elected and former elected officials, began to erode because of the growing support for three non-politicians — Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina. But Walker’s plight was compounded by strategic mistakes and self-inflicted wounds that raised questions about his readiness to serve as president. 
 
 1 of 26 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × A look back at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s political career View Photos Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkerr announced Monday that he will quit the 2016 GOP race. Caption The Wisconsin governor announced Monday that he will drop out of the 2016 GOP race. Sept. 21, 2015 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at a news conference in Madison, where he announced that he is suspending his presidential campaign. Morry Gash/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 Walker’s departure comes less than two weeks after former Texas governor Rick Perry announced that he would suspend his candidacy. Both decisions reflect the unforgiving impact of public opinion polls in this early stage of the campaign and the apparent role that the candidate debates are playing in shaping attitudes. 
 
 Walker’s decision, like that of Perry, points to another reality of campaigning in this cycle: Having a well-funded super PAC is no insurance that a candidate can survive in the face of poor poll numbers. In the vicious cycle of modern-day campaigning, weak poll numbers quickly dry up fundraising, making it difficult to pay for everyday operations, which brings further retrenchment and, in the case of Walker, eventual extinction. 
 
 In an era of reality-TV politics, Walker, a Harley-riding Midwest everyman, suffered as well from a personality that was easily overshadowed. His advisers believed he had performed adequately in last week’s debate, but he was judged more harshly by critics who said he seemed to fade into the background through long portions of the forum. 
 
 Gary Marx, who coordinated Walker’s outreach to conservative movement groups, said Monday that it had been hard to generate enthusiasm from the start. 
 
 “The ‘conservative governor who is a fighter with results’ wasn’t the right message for these times,” Marx said. “It has not been resonating at all this year, across the board and throughout this process.” 
 
 Walker can bequeath few supporters to other candidates, but he has something of great value: a national network of major contributors who had flocked to him during his battles against labor unions in Wisconsin and who helped his super PAC raise $20 million in just two months this summer. Other teams were already at work to woo those contributors as Walker bowed out. 
 
 Walker’s campaign had been reeling for the past month, and there were calls from donors and others for a shake-up among his top staff. The large cadre of staff members and paid consultants around Walker had been on what one called a “death watch” for the past several weeks. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The governor’s political team had been bracing for spending cuts, layoffs and a change in leadership, according to one Republican operative working with the Walker team. Still, the candidate kept his deliberations very close, with most staff, including senior aides, finding out only Monday that he had decided to end his campaign. It was Walker, apparently, who concluded that the effort was no longer viable. 
 
 Several Walker donors, prominent supporters and fundraisers said they first learned Walker was dropping out from media reports. 
 
 Minnesota businessman Stanley S. Hubbard and his wife have been longtime supporters of the Wisconsin governor, but they began to lose faith as Walker fell in the polls. Over the weekend, the Hubbards decided to start donating to other GOP candidates — Fiorina, Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. 
 
 “We could see this coming, although we hoped Scott could do something to turn it around,” Hubbard said in an interview Monday evening. “It’s like picking a TV anchor: You can have five people and give them each the same script, and they will say the exact same thing, and at the end of the day everyone will say, ‘That one was the best.’ I guess it’s called star power.” 
 
 New York investment broker Eric Anton, a top Walker donor, said he was surprised Walker dropped out as quickly as he did, adding that he had thought the campaign would try to make changes first. Anton said he was “so depressed” by the news. “My heart is broken,” he said. 
 
 Asked whom he plans to support now, Anton named three favorites: Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and Fiorina. 
 
 Elected governor in 2010 after having served as Milwaukee County executive, Walker came to national attention in early 2011 when he sought to restrict collective-bargaining rights for public employee unions in Wisconsin. 
 
 The confrontation brought thousands of angry demonstrators to the state capitol in Madison and generated threats against Walker and his family. In that clash, Walker held firm, and the GOP-­controlled legislature enacted his spending cuts and union restrictions. 
 
 But that did not end the battle. In 2012, Walker was forced into a recall election and another brutal confrontation with the unions and the left. Walker survived that recall and won reelection in 2014. 
 
 He came into the presidential campaign with unexpected force, delivering a fiery and well-received speech at a gathering of conservatives in Iowa in January. But he became a victim of his sudden success, proving quickly that he was not well prepared for the rigors of a presidential campaign. 
 
 “It was nice for him to get that attention in the short run, but it set up expectations he couldn’t hope to maintain,” said Vin Weber, a former Minnesota congressman and an adviser to Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign. 
 
 Some Republicans believe that Walk­er drew the wrong lessons — and a false sense of confidence — from his battles in Wisconsin. He stumbled when asked about evolution. He appeared to suggest that his clashes at home prepared him to take on Islamic State terrorists. He changed his position on comprehensive immigration reform. 
 
 He formally announced his candidacy just two months ago, pledging that he alone among the GOP candidates had demonstrated that he could fight and win against the Democrats. At the time, he was leading polls in Iowa, the state that he and his campaign saw as critical to winning the nomination. 
 
 That changed after Trump got into the race. Faced with renewed scrutiny, Walker again wobbled. In recent weeks, he suggested that he favored ending birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, then spent days working his way out of it. 
 
 A final blow came Sunday when a new national CNN-ORC poll showed Walker registering at less than 1 percent. 
 
 Jamie Johnson, who had been Perry’s Iowa state director, was in the audience for Walker’s weekend Faith and Freedom dinner speech. He said the onetime front-runner seemed listless and lost. 
 
 “Someone asked me: ‘What’s happened to Walker?’ ” Johnson recalled. “I said: ‘You know how some candidates are trying to find his voice? He’s trying to find his core.’ And boy, you could see that onstage. The old blue shirt with sleeves rolled up twice wasn’t cutting it anymore.” 
 
 More than one Republican said over the past weeks that a politician known for his discipline and focus had lost his balance as troubles mounted. 
 
 As Johnson put it: “Walker changed the direction of his ship so many times that he created a whirlpool, and the ship went down.” 
 
 Robert Costa, Philip Rucker, David Weigel and Sean Sullivan contributed to this report.
– Scott Walker is out of the GOP race after a campaign that peaked well before it officially began: He led the polls in Iowa for much of the year, but he has dropped out of the race after just 71 days, which ABC News reports is one of the shortest modern presidential campaigns on record. Where did it all go wrong for the Wisconsin governor? Insiders tell Politico that Walker was overconfident, and though he tried to act as his own campaign manager, he seemed to be "making it up as he went along," causing plenty of strategic blunders. Fundraising dried up as Donald Trump's rise pushed him to the sidelines, leaving him with a large organization but little support. His sudden departure from the race came after he failed to make an impression at the second debate and a CNN poll found his support at well below 1%. "He was a terrible candidate, but he also got Trump-ed," a source tells Politico. More: Sources tell CNN that although a super PAC supporting him had plenty of cash, Walker's campaign funds started to dry up after the first debate as donors looked elsewhere. Walker "is a pragmatist above all else and just didn't see the path to a comeback" after his poll numbers collapsed even in Iowa, a campaign insider says. Walker was hurt by flip-flops on issues like birthright citizenship, where he changed his position three times in a week, CNN notes, and by gaffes like suggesting he would consider building a wall along the Canadian border. In his exit speech last night, Walker said he had been "called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field." He urged other candidates to follow his lead so a clear alternative to Trump could emerge, the Washington Post reports. Some of Walker's former rivals praised him as he left the race, including Marco Rubio, who called him "one of the best governors in the country," and Donald Trump, who said "he's a very nice person and has a great future," reports the Hill. The rival campaigns didn't wait until Walker announced his exit to start trying to poach his aides and his donors, the AP reports. The competition heated up after the announcement: A source close to the billionaire Ricketts family, which had supported Walker, tells the AP that within minutes of the governor's press conference, the family received calls from six campaigns, some of them from the candidates themselves. (Rick Perry has also dropped out of the race, and one donor wants his $5 million back.)