"There comes a time to recognize political realities," Tim Donner wrote, announcing his decision to bow out of the race for Virginia's U.S. Senate seat.
Donner was one of five Republicans campaigning for the seat. In addition to frontrunner George Allen, Jamie Radtke, a tea party activist, E.W. Jackson Sr., a minister from Hampton Roads, and David McCormick a lawyer from Virginia Beach remain in the race.
"I offered myself as a viable option for the voters of Virginia," Donner said, "a candidate with a very different life experience and credentials than the front runner." He runs a television production company, Horizons Television, Inc., based in northern Virginia.
Donner said in a statement that the state's political establishment was overwhelmingly behind Allen, which made his continued campaign efforts untenable. But he did warn that his exit from the race would not be his political end.
"I will continue to employ my God-given skills to stay in the fight to restore the constitutional republic gifted to us by America's founders, and to oppose at every turn the competing and ever more threatening vision of America as just another European-style social democracy. My passion is for free people and free markets," Donner said.
Virginia Republicans will choose their party's candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat on June 12.
