Ben Carson, the soft-spoken Republican presidential hopeful, officially announced Friday he is dropping out of the race for the White House. The announcement comes two days after declaring he saw "no path forward" in the campaign.
Carson made his announcement at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md.
His campaign failed to gain traction after briefly leading in national polling in November. Carson faced scrutiny for comments he made in his book, which caused Carson to fire back at the media and critics.
Through Super Tuesday, Carson had only received about 6 percent of the vote, and eight delegates. Carson's best performance was in Alaska where he received 11 percent of the vote, good enough for a fourth-place finish.
Carson's departure leaves the GOP race with four remaining candidates, with businessman Donald Trump leading all of them in the polls. Trump is followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is in a distant fourth place.
During the announcement, Carson declined to endorse any candidate for the Republican nomination, though he said he has "talked to all of them this week."
The Conservative Political Action Conference crowd gave him an adoring standing ovation. He says there are "a lot of people who love me, they just won't vote for me."
Carson added he will now be working on a project to encourage religious values voters to participate in elections.
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