Michele Bachmann Drops Out After Iowa Caucus. What's Next for Her?

Flanked by her husband and her mother, Michelle Bachmann announced on Wednesday that she was dropping out of the …After a sixth-place finish in the Iowa caucus, Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, one of the most vocal members of the Tea Party movement and the only woman in the GOP race, has announced that she is suspending her campaign for president.

"Last night, the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice. And so I have decided to stand aside," she told reporters in Des Moines on Wednesday. "Make no mistake, I'll continue to be a strong voice. I'll continue to stand and fight for the country and for the American people, and for our freedom."

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Mitt Romney, who won the Iowa caucus by just eight votes, already seems to be reaching out to Bachmann's supporters, praising her just hours after her announcement as "a friend and strong competitor."

"She ran a campaign to advance the principles of limited government that I hold dear," he said in a statement. "Her tenacity on the campaign trail and her fierce intelligence in the debates have left me no doubt that, as advertised, she does indeed have a titanium spine. Michele inspires millions of Americans by the way she has lived her life, raised her family and served her country. With leaders of her caliber coming up the ranks, the future of the Republican Party -- and the future of the country -- is bright."

Before Wednesday, Bachmann had insisted that a poor showing in Iowa would not derail her campaign. Though her top Iowa adviser endorsed Ron Paul on December 28, during a New Year's Day appearance on ABC's "This Week," Bachmann reiterated that she was "the strongest core conservative in this race" and that "We're here... for the long race."

"This is a 50-state race," she said. "And we intend to participate not only in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, but to go all the way, because I intend to be the Republican nominee and defeat Barack Obama in 2012." She said her drop in the popularity polls don't accurately reflect what Iowa voters really think, adding, "I think Tuesday night people are going to see a miracle."

But on Tuesday night, what people saw was a subdued candidate who addressed a small group of 60 or so people as the disappointing results rolled in, reading flatly from prepared remarks and prompting pundits to wonder how much longer she would stay in the game. She came in sixth place, with just five percent of the vote, even after her 10-day, 99-county tour of the state; the only candidate who fared worse was John Huntsman, who didn't actively campaign in Iowa at all.

Bachmann's communications director, Alice Stewart, told reporters on Wednesday that dwindling campaign finances did not factor into the decision to suspend the campaign. "She doesn't see where she made mistakes," Stewart said of Bachmann. "None of us, you know, see where there were mistakes made."

Though Bachmann won a GOP Iowa straw poll in August and was tied with Mitt Romney in June just before she officially announced her candidacy, she has struggled to stay on top since. In spite of her strong performance at the Tea Party Express/CNN debate in Tampa on September 12, by October Bachmann was pulling just 4 percent in the polls and her entire New Hampshire staff quit. She was ridiculed for a January speech in which she told Tea Party supporters that the founding fathers "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States" when, in fact, many of them had been slave owners.

In September, during an interview with the "Today Show," Bachmann infuriated parents and medical professionals by casting doubt on the safety of the HPV vaccine. "I had a mother come up to me last night here in Tampa, Florida after the debate. She told me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection. And she suffered from mental retardation thereafter," Bachmann said. "This is the very real concern and people have to draw their own conclusions."

A staunch social conservative with strong views on abortion, religion, and homosexuality, in December Bachmann was confronted by a 16-year-old student about her stance on gay marriage and, during a book signing in South Carolina a week later, by an 8-year-old boy who told her, "My mommy is gay and she doesn't need fixing."

After ending her campaign on Wednesday, Bachmann did not endorse another candidate and did not say whether she would run for reelection as Minnesota's Republican representative. Romney's praise for her has sparked speculation about whether she's considering a Vice Presidential nomination. But on Wednesday, all Bachmann would say about her future was "I look forward to the next chapter in God's plan."

"I have no regrets," she told reporters in Des Moines. "None whatsoever. We never compromised our principles, and we can leave this race knowing that we ran it with utmost integrity, and that we made a very important contribution to this race."




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