Bill Richardson, trailing his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, is to officially announce tomorrow that he is withdrawing from the race, according to a series of reports in the US media, including the New York Times and news channel MSNBC.
Richardson finished fourth in Iowa and won less than five per cent of the vote in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire on Thursday, far behind front runners Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.
The former Clinton administration cabinet secretary and congressman ran a campaign based his broad foreign policy experience as US ambassador to the United Nations and special envoy to countries such as North Korea, and his term as governor of New Mexico. But his slogan of "experience and change" failed to win him much public support, despite his commitment to immediately withdrawing US troops from Iraq.
His withdrawal comes as the Democratic race gets tighter, concentrating on the two winners of Iowa and New Hampshire, Obama and Clinton. Edwards, however, has vowed to stay in the race until the Democratic convention.
