In a shock announcement that called for a “positive, conservative alternative” to Donald Trump, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker announced on Monday that he was suspending his presidential campaign – once a leading bid for Republicans to recapture the White House.

At a news conference in Madison on Monday, less than one week after a limp debate performance failed to revive interest in his candidacy, Walker essentially called on his fellow Republicans to gang up on the real-estate mogul to “clear the field”, which has now shrunk to 15.

“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,” Walker said. “With this in mind, I am suspending my campaign immediately.”

Walker encouraged other candidates to do the same, “so that voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current frontrunner”.

The governor said he admired former President Ronald Reagan “because of his eternal optimism” but “sadly, the debate taking place in the Republican party today, is not focused on that optimistic view of America. Instead, it is focused on personal attacks.

“We need to get back to the basics of our party,” he said.

With four months still to go until the Iowa caucuses, Walker had been struggling to overcome funding shortages and a seeming inability to make a mark in a large Republican field.

A CNN/ORC poll released this week following the second Republican debate showed Walker failing to register with even 1% of the vote, instead scoring an asterisk.

Walker cancelled multiple appearances after the debate, adding to the notion that his campaign was on a kind of deathwatch.

The staunchly conservative governor, who survived a recall election in 2012, sat atop the Iowa polls for six months in the long-haul 2016 campaign – until Trump overtook him in August.

The plummet from top to bottom and now out of the nominating contest represents an astounding fall for a candidate who had once been touted as the great conservative hope for retaking the White House – an establishment rightwinger with generous backers and an unflinchingly conservative record.

It also showed the staying power of non-career politicians like Trump as well as the surging former technology executive Carly Fiorina and the neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who have stolen headlines and turned voters’ heads in recent weeks.

“There are 20 some-odd people running for president – two will be the nominee, and one will win,” said Stuart Stevens, who served as the top strategist for Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. “It doesn’t mean that the other 19 or 20 who didn’t make it are failures or ran bad campaigns. It just means they lost.”

Walker is the second major Republican candidate to withdraw from the Republican field. Former Texas governor Rick Perry dropped out 10 days ago after facing significant fundraising woes after he failed to qualify for the party’s first debate.

The resignation immediately sent shockwaves through the Republican race for the White House, boosting the prospects of other establishment candidates such as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and John Kasich. The trio praised Walker on Monday.

“Scott Walker is a good man who has a proven record of fighting for conservative reforms,” Bush tweeted. “I know he’ll continue to do that as Governor.”

“Republicans are lucky to have Scott on our team, and I wish the best to him and his family,” tweeted Rubio.

“Make no mistake, a strong leader like @ScottWalker has a bright future & is a model for other governors,” tweeted Kasich. “Good luck, Scott! -John”

(The Guardian)