Rick Perry suspends presidential campaign

The number of GOP candidates running for president has dropped by one.

For the moment.

On Friday, in a speech to the conservative interest group the Eagle Forum in St. Louis, former Texas governor Rick Perry announced that he will be suspending his presidential campaign.

'We have a tremendous field - the best in a generation - so I step aside knowing our party is in good hands, and as long as we listen to the grass roots, the cause of conservatism will be too,” Perry said.

In wide ranging remarks, before making the announcement, Perry described the genesis of his political career and criticized the direction of the country under current President Barack Obama. Perry emphasized throughout the speech that there was still reason for optimism for the future of conservatism in America with new leadership 'that champions conservative ideas.”

'We must return to great ideas, to our belief in the power of free individuals, free markets, and free Americans standing watch for liberty wherever it is threated,” Perry said in the speech.

In the past month it has been reported that Perry, in his second run for president, had stopped paying his campaign staff in Iowa. Before that, Perry did not make the cut established by Fox News to participate in its much anticipated first prime-time debate between Republican candidates. Instead, he participated with the seven lowest-polling GOP candidates in a debate televised that afternoon.

After leading the polls briefly in his first run for president in 2012, Perry finished a disappointing 5th in the Iowa Caucus. He then suspended his campaign after disappointing results continued on into New Hampshire and South Carolina.