NASHUA, N.H. – Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry both hit their high-water mark on the same day - Aug. 13, when Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll and Perry formally entered the Republican presidential race.
Now they've shaken up the race in tandem again.
Bachmann announced her withdrawal from the race on Wednesday, at the same time that Perry indicated he would take his battered campaign to South Carolina for the Jan. 21 first-in-the-South GOP primary.
"I have decided to stand aside," Bachmann said. She did not endorse any of her rivals. The Minnesota congresswoman finished sixth in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, a long drop from the days last summer when she led polls there.
Perry's future is less certain. Just hours after he finished fifth in Iowa and said he would return to Texas to "reassess" his campaign, the Texas governor tweeted supporters Wednesday that "the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State … Here we come South Carolina!!!"
Bachmann, who sought to position herself as the conservative alternative to the more moderate Mitt Romney, could never capitalize on her straw poll win, amid concerns about her fundraising and her ability to defeat President Obama in the fall.
She steadily lost ground to other conservative "anti-Romneys" as former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, and Perry all finished ahead of her in Iowa.
Ed Rollins, a former Bachmann adviser who resigned amid discord within her campaign, told Fox News that, "she just didn't make the sale."
Rollins also pointed out that Bachmann has money troubles and must deal with a redrawn congressional district should she decide to seek re-election to the U.S. House.
Bachmann couldn't compete financially in both New Hampshire, which votes Tuesday, and South Carolina on Jan. 21, said Republican strategist Rich Galen. She "is probably getting a lot of pressure to come home and start campaigning for her congressional seat in a redrawn district."
In her withdrawal statement, Bachmann said she would continue to campaign against President Obama, but did not say whether she would seek re-election to the U.S. House. She said she would not run for the House again when she announced her presidential campaign last year.
Bachmann's status in the polls never recovered after Perry announced his candidacy on the same day Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll in August.
Perry immediately rose to the top of the Republican field in the polls, and many conservatives hoped he would be the clear alternative to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.
The governor of a major state, Perry could and did tout his job creation record in Texas. His religious beliefs were expected to appeal to the many evangelical voters in Iowa, South Carolina, and other states.
Perry raised more than $17 million in the first fundraising period after he announced his campaign. That also enabled him to run a national campaign. Indeed, Perry wound up spending more money in Iowa than the other GOP candidates, including an estimated $4.5 million in media buys.
So what happened?
The debates happened.
Perry's stumbling performances — particularly the infamous moment when he forgot the name of a federal department he would cut and then said "oops" — reduced the Texas governor from formidable contender to his fifth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
"You can come back from a lot of things in American politics, but you can't come back from ridicule," Galen said. "He will never get over 'oops,' ever."
During an October debate in Michigan, Perry talked about cutting government by saying: "I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the — what's the third one there? Let's see …"
After stumbling for nearly a minute - and despite prodding from opponents and the crowd — Perry said, "I can't. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops."
There have been other mistakes as well. At one point, Perry said the voting age is 21, when in fact it is 18; he encouraged people to get to the polls on Nov. 12, when the election is Nov. 6.
Perry also mispronounced the name of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and said the court has eight members when it has nine.
Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, said Perry's apparent decision to skip the Granite State primary on Tuesday probably won't help his efforts in South Carolina, because "when you skip a state, I think it's difficult to remain part of the story."
Scala and others said Perry's ability to compete in South Carolina and beyond may well depend on how much money he can raise, especially in light of his showing in Iowa.
Republican analyst Ari Fleischer said Perry's best chance in South Carolina is if other conservatives bloody up Romney during the New Hampshire primary.
"His problem, like everyone else, is if conservatives split the anti-Romney vote so Romney keeps winning," Fleischer said.
