Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman announced Monday that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing rival Mitt Romney for the nomination.

Yale College Republicans President Michael Knowles ’12, a leading Yale conservative who served as Huntsman’s National Youth Co-Chair, followed his candidate’s lead. Knowles said that after spending a year and a half searching for possible alternative candidates to the former Massachusetts governor — including lobbying for Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to join the race — he will finally accept Romney as the GOP nominee. Knowles said he will will endorse the candidate tomorrow in a piece for the Daily Caller, calling him “unstoppable.”

Huntsman called former Bain Capital CEO Romney the Republican’s best shot at defeating President Obama in November’s election. While he has in the past called Romney a “panderer-in-chief,” Huntsman said the two men shared the same drive to restore “bold and principled leadership” to Washington D.C.