WASHINGTON - Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., said Sunday he won't run for president because of family concerns, narrowing the field but making a wide-open race even hazier.
"In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one," said the former Bush White House budget chief, disclosing his decision in a middle-of-the-night e-mail to supporters. "The interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry."
A two-term Midwestern governor, Daniels had considered a bid for months and was pressured by many in the Republican establishment who longed for a conservative with a strong fiscal record to run.
He expressed interest in getting in the race partly because it would give him a national platform to ensure the country's fiscal health would remain part of the 2012 debate.
But Daniels always said his family - his wife and four daughters - was a sticking point.
Had he entered, Daniels would have shaken up an evolving field that lacks a front-runner against President Barack Obama and that has been unpredictable in its early stages.
See Monday's Times Free Press for complete coverage.