Updated at 8:05 p.m. with Trump comments about O’Rourke at Mississippi rally.

WASHINGTON — Beto O’Rourke dropped out of the Democratic presidential race without warning on Friday, ending a long-shot bid that began with unmatched buzz that quickly faded.

He announced the move in an email to supporters and later in an emotional speech in Iowa, where he had planned to spend the next four days stumping at candidate forums, a fish fry, brew pubs and college campuses.

“Though it is difficult to accept, it is clear to me now that this campaign does not have the means to move forward successfully,” he wrote. “My service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee.”

O’Rourke had yet to score an invitation to the next televised debate, on Nov. 20 in Atlanta, and it wasn’t looking likely — a body blow in a crowded field. The party set a Nov. 13 deadline to hit 3% in four national polls and O’Rourke was two polls short, with tepid support and no momentum.

The decision ramps up pressure on Julián Castro and other laggards, and could accelerate the winnowing with less than 100 days before the Iowa caucuses.

President Donald Trump, who has enjoyed using O’Rourke as a foil, called him a “nasty guy” at a rally in Tupelo, Miss., and taunted him for boasting that he was “born” to be president.

“He made a total fool out of himself," Trump told his crowd. “He came out of Texas a very hot political property, and he went back as cold as you can be…. So you come from Texas, you don’t like religion, you don’t like oil, you don’t have guns, that’s not a good combination.”

Oh no, Beto just dropped out of race for President despite him saying he was “born for this.” I don’t think so! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2019

In a fawning cover story timed to his campaign launch, Vanity Fair quoted the Texan saying that “I’m just born to be in It.”

He insisted later that he was saying only that he felt drawn to public service, not that he felt destined to run for president. But the image of entitlement dogged him, and dragged him down. His penchant for livestreaming road trips, rallies and even haircuts and dental cleanings brought social media stardom and a devoted following, but also made him a target for lampooning of the sort dished out by Hillary Clinton adviser Philippe Reines on Friday night.

He predicted that O’Rourke would return to the spotlight the next day to “apologize for dropping out badly, say he‘s learned from the bad dropout, and ready to re-drop out.”

As for Trump, although he loved to bash O’Rourke — recently at a Dallas rally, he painted the Texan as a gun-grabbing enemy of religious freedom — he also provided much-needed oxygen at key moments. When Trump descended on El Paso for a February campaign rally, O’Rourke took the opening and led a massive counter-demonstration that elevated his national profile, weeks ahead of his campaign launch.

Excited crowds gathered for a first glimpse in Iowa and New Hampshire, but their attention had wandered by the end.

For reasons not yet apparent, O’Rourke cut short his campaign so abruptly that his wife Amy, who occasionally joined him on the stump, was not on hand for the final moments of his campaign. The night he lost to Cruz, she was at his side as he told a sea of disappointed but adoring backers that “I am so f---ing proud of you guys!”

“This was a decision that we made so recently and so reluctantly that she can’t be here in person,” he told a far more modest, but equally adoring crowd in Des Moines. As he often did while campaigning, he wore a grey V-neck sweater and stood on a box as an aide livestreamed the moment.

A hint of sadness in his voice, he thanked supporters and aides: “You will always be with us, and I will always be with you.”

The anticlimactic scene came almost exactly a year after he electrified Democrats in Texas and nationwide as the party’s most formidable statewide candidate in a generation. He held Sen. Ted Cruz below 51% and nearly managed to snap a Democratic losing streak that dates to 1998 in Texas. The $80 million he raised set an all-time record for any Senate nominee anywhere.

The buzz that race generated turned into a siren song, and he heeded it, after some hesitation and a solo road trip that he journaled online as he weighed his options.

In one of his breezy, often poetic entries, he confessed that the defeat to Cruz put him in a “funk"— a candor that endeared him to many and prompted critics to dismiss him as self-absorbed.

In March, he plunged into the presidential race as a leading contender.

But O’Rourke never found a niche and “Betomania” didn’t last long.

With no statewide office under his belt, his resume paled besides those of other competitors. He emerged from the Texas Senate race with an image as a moderate compared with the likes of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, given his support for free trade and the oil and gas industry.

As a white male in the party’s most diverse field in history, he couldn’t avoid comparison to a former vice president, Joe Biden, whose experience he couldn’t touch, and Pete Buttigieg, a small city mayor whose charisma ended up overshadowing O’Rourke’s.

The Texan vowed to support the party’s eventual nominee with all of his energy.

“Though this is the end of this campaign, we are right in the middle of this fight,” he told supporters in Des Moines, citing gun violence, climate change, structural racism and the consequences of the Trump presidency as ongoing issues that motivate him and bring together Democrats.

He noted that his last stop before returning Friday to Iowa was Newtown, Conn., site of a horrific school shooting on Dec. 14, 2012, that left 26 people dead, all but a half-dozen of them children.

“I will still be part of all the causes that brought us here together in the first place,” he said.

His prospects were already flagging when news came of the El Paso massacre on Aug. 3. He rushed home and suspended traditional campaign activities for nearly two weeks, skipping the Iowa State Fair to attend funerals for the 22 victims, console his community, lead marches against hate, and serve as the border city’s unofficial ambassador as national attention focused on gun violence and anti-immigrant sentiment.

Rivals lauded the leadership he showed during that episode but distanced themselves when he began demanding mandatory buybacks of assault weapons, a departure from his vow during the Senate race and up to that point in the presidential race that he would let Americans keep any guns they already owned, and only wanted to ban future sales.

“Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” he declared at a debate in Houston six weeks after the rampage.

“Beto will forever be known as the one who finally dropped the pretense and admitted that Democrats want to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens,” asserted Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh.

Beto will forever be known as the one who finally dropped the pretense and admitted that Democrats want to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens. — Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) November 2, 2019

After the massacre, he retooled his campaign, devoting more time to sites of shootings and hate crimes and somewhat less in the traditional battlegrounds. He got a temporary bounce in polls but not enough.

He gave no hints ahead of Friday’s decision that he was even toying with such a move.

Hours before he dropped out, his campaign announced that he would make his pitch to New Hampshire civic leaders next Friday at the Politics and Eggs breakfast, a rite of passage for serious contenders. He was already scheduled to visit Concord that day to file for a spot on the first in the nation primary ballot.

“Beto O’Rourke is a fighter, advocate, and leader," Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said after the announcement. “In the wake of the El Paso shootings, he made the entire country proud as he focused his campaign on ending gun violence and the rise of white supremacy.... Beto O’Rourke has done amazing things for the Democratic Party in Texas, and we look forward to his future."

Castro, the other Texan in the presidential field, has struggled even more for traction. The former Obama housing secretary and San Antonio mayor has none of the four polls needed to qualify for the Nov. 20 debate.

He lauded his erstwhile rival.

“Beto has inspired millions of Americans all over our country, and rallied Texans and El Pasoans after the tragedy that struck his hometown. I am thankful for his voice and his continued leadership, and I look forward to working together in whatever he chooses to do next,” he wrote.

Beto has inspired millions of Americans all over our country, and rallied Texans and El Pasoans after the tragedy that struck his hometown.



I am thankful for his voice and his continued leadership, and I look forward to working together in whatever he chooses to do next. https://t.co/Csz4xqTKYF — Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) November 1, 2019

Many O’Rourke supporters, in Texas and around the country, had hoped that he would turn his sights in 2020 on Sen. John Cornyn, capitalizing on the network and excitement he generated against Cruz. But from the outset of his presidential race he ruled out a Senate bid, insisting it would not be a fallback option even if the White House dream fell short.

With the Texas primary well underway, O’Rourke has repeatedly tamped down speculation. He showcased Democrats angling for a shot at Cornyn on Oct. 17, as he led a counter-rally when Trump campaigned before a huge crowd in downtown Dallas.

Carol Donovan, chairwoman of the Dallas County Democrats, called it sad and disappointing for O’Rourke to drop out.

”Beto O’Rourke had so many fans in Texas," she said. “He was so popular in Texas and there were so many people who were rooting for him.”

She was resigned to the fact that he won’t run for the U.S. Senate seat — no doubt a relief to the likes of MJ Hegar and state Sen. Royce West.

“But I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Beto O’Rourke," she said.

“I’m sad for the country, but I’m happy for his wife and his children,” said lawyer Steve Ortega, who served on El Paso’s city council with six years with O’Rourke. “He was an important voice on issues concerning immigration and gun control.... He wasn’t poll-testing his lines.”

Washington correspondent Tom Benning, Austin Bureau Chief Robert T. Garrett, and staff writer Nic Garcia in Dallas contributed to this report.