Perry, too, abandons bid

From the WSJ:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry dropped out of the presidential race Thursday and threw his support behind Newt Gingrich for the Republican nomination. Mr. Perry, speaking at a news conference, said he saw no viable path forward and was therefore suspending his campaign and endorsing Mr. Gingrich.

Dave Weigel weighs in on what it means for Gingrich, albeit prior to the official announcement of the endorsement:

Perry's exit was a de facto Gingrich endorsement anyway. His strength, according to [Perry advisor Katon] Dawson, was going to come from the Piedmont and from parts of the state with big veteran communities. With Perry out, there's 5 percent or so of the electorate that 1) are dead-set against Mitt Romney and 2) want to cast some kind of anti-establishment vote (as hard as that is to define), and there's Gingrich, puffed up from Sarah Palin's endorsement, ready to reel 'em in.