WASHINGTON (CNN) - Rep. Dennis Kucinich will announce he is abandoning his long shot bid for the White House in a news conference Friday, his campaign confirms to CNN.
In an interview with the Cleveland Plain-Dealer earlier Thursday, the Ohio Democrat said he plans on “transitioning out of the Democratic Presidential primary race" to focus on a "new direction."
His spokesman tells CNN the former presidential candidate is now gearing up for his congressional re-election campaign. Kucinich faces four candidates in a Democratic primary for his seat on March 4, and has faced criticism for devoting much of his attention to running for president.
In his interview with the Plain-Dealer, Kucinich said he will give a much lengthier statement Friday.
This was Kucinich's second bid for the White House - he first ran in 2004. The latest CNN Poll showed him drawing 3 percent of support among registered Democrats nationally.
– CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
From CNN Politics
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Dennis Kucinich is the best candidate for president because he is for the American people and works for our best intrest. He is honest, decent, intelligent, sincere . All big business including the media only want a candidate they can control. Watch the media do it's controling until they put McCain in the White House.......scarier than even GWB!!!
How can anyone reasonably intelligent who supports genuine and fundamental human decency not acknowledge what this man positively contributed to this race and our national dialogue?
Thank you Dennis for being a light of truth, kindness, and fundamental human decency.
Hey, five paragraphs on DK getting out the of the race! That's the best coverage he's gotten since the UFO comment. Woo-hoo! Thanks, CNN for your awesome political analysis!
That's too bad. I liked him when he was mayor of Cleveland. I even voted for him during a recall election. He was a boy mayor, but had good ideas and a lot of heart. Made the establishment nervous. And he was MUCH better than the man who replaced him in a subsequent election.
I'm voting for Obama but I think Kucinich is a neat guy. I wish the media (that means you CNN) had allowed us to hear more from him rather than make the choices for him. Democracy means all voices be heard and considered viable until the election or their campaign determines they are not.
It is a sad reflection on the Democratic Party when the candidate that best reflects traditional Democratic idealology is forced to recind his candidacy. I hope to see him run again.
At least Kucinich hands down had the hottest wife of all of the candidates...!!!!
Too bad. Kucinich stands up for what he believes in and has a lot of good ideas to get America back to working for its people, not the highest bidder.
The next obvious choice for Kucinich supporters is John Edwards. Edwards knows that the big money and the lobbiests that Obama and Clinton have taken donations from have hurt middle and lower class families.
Edwards has also promised to end U.S. combat operations in Iraq during his first term.
Edwards for President in '08!
Aaaaaaw, poor little guy. If he wasn't such a socialist, I could kinda feel sorry for him. Well... better luck next time Dennis.
The only reason Dennis is leaving the race for president is his fear of loosing his job as congressman. Finally, several candidtates who can unseat him have shwed up, and Dennis realizes they will make his absentee congressman act is wearing thin with the voeters in the City with one of the hghset foreclosure, poverty and jobless rates in the country.
As a candidate for Congress he can point to nothing which he has done to save jobs, improve education or anything else in his congressional district.
Dennis played the victim when he was denied access to Presidential debates. What the rest of the country didn't see was that in the last two congressional campaigns Kucinich refused to debate his opponent, effectively doing to her what the networks did to him. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Now Dennis knows he can't hide so he better not run.
If he would have done his job in congress rather than feed his ego he'd have some job security. Now it might be HASTA LA VISTA DENNIS!!!
I think we just lost the ONLY honest man running for President. It's a sad day in my house.
Whew, good thing he's out! Wouldn't want silly things like ISSUES mucking up the race for president would we? Hence why he wasn't allowed into any debates after the first few that he won.
Oh well, guess we'll still have plenty of catfights between Obama and Hillary to watch, and more of Edwards whining about being ignored. So much for progress.
i hope he endorses edwards
ye i hope this guy endorses obama!
LETS GO OBAMA!
So sad. I think we have lost our democracy. I am afraid for our country and the American people. He was the only candidate that I trusted.
One question: is it the REAL Dennis leaving the platform, or the alien that abducted him and took on his form before he esaped and came back to claim his life back? Enquiring minds want to know CNN...
We welcome all Dennis Kucinich voters to vote for Hillary Clinton this Saturday in South Carolina and beyond. You will not be dissappointed.
Hillary
Hillary
Hillary
How unfortunate our political process is. We literally get 2, maybe 3 candidates to choose from for each party, and nobody else has a legitimate shot. Blech!
Why doesn't this country REALLY let the people decide, and have a National Primary with all the candidates listed? ...instead of the current mishmash of only a few early-voting states deciding our choices by candidates throwing the most money at them from the get-go?
Top vote-getters from all parties would then proceed to Election day.
Get rid of the dumb caucus idea, too.
And what's with this country STILL clinging to the Electoral College?
John Edwards'08. The ONLY choice to beat the Republicans.
The BIG FIX is right on schedule.
Kucinich truly is a man of great vision an awesome person and humanitarian.
I certainly hope he decides to run for president again in the future. He was the only one running who shared my views.He has more integrity then the rest. His vision of ending poverty, the war, and making universal healthcare available was
thinking about what is best in the long term not the short term. So many of the others running have no long term vision. Strength in Peace.Your ideas will last.
F YOU ARE A TRUE DEMOCRAT DISGUSTED BY THE ACTIONS OF THE CLINTON'S, JOIN ME IN NOT VOTING FOR HER DURING THE GENERAL ELECTION.
SEND HER AND ALL OTHER POLITICIANS LIKE HER A STRONG MESSAGE. WE DO NOT SUPPORT YOU!!!!
BOYCOTT HILLARY CLINTON. SPREAD THE WORD EVERYWHERE!!!
We need a new political party! The Clinton's represent the old democratic political thinking, divisiveness, they play by the rules and get little done. Bill Clinton virtually created Nafta, losing Millions of American jobs. Just listen to how racist Hillary Clinton's supporters are, they are not going to move this country forward in any meaningful way. The republican politicos are, quite literally, bankrupting America to make themselves pervertedly rich.
We need a new party, made up of Neo-Democrats, progressives, independents, and yes, some republicans. We need to make a party that focuses on the people, all the people, of America. We need a party that will focus on smart Economic policies, a party that realizes that bipartisanship and transparency creates the best results in Washington. A party that realizes that when the American people are doing well, then the country is doing well.
More than everything else, we need to throw out these aging political families that have dominated Washington for the past 35 years. We need a new political party!!!!!!
WE NEED A NEW POLITICAL PARTY!!!
I'll support whoever he endorses. He gets to select my vote for me.
Sadly, he was never given the exposure his ideas merited. Sure, he might have believed in UFOs, but a lot of other people believe things even stranger that are accepted just because everybody around them accepts it. He was one of a few good people in the running and we are worse off for his loss (remember that he asked people to get behind Obama in Iowa if he didn't garner 15% at the caucuses.. who else would say something like that?).