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Ben Carson suspended his presidential campaign on Friday, ending an upstart bid that began with promise before fizzling out.

Mr. Carson signaled this week that he was winding things down, when he said that he would skip the Republican debate on Thursday night. He acknowledged that after a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday he did not see a political path forward.

Mr. Carson received a standing ovation at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday when he announced that he would be leaving the campaign trail.

“There’s a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me,” Mr. Carson said. “I will still continue to be heavily involved in trying to save our nation.”

Despite his departure from the race, Mr. Carson is not finished with politics. Before his speech, he announced that he would be taking the helm of My Faith Votes, a nonpartisan organization with a mission of mobilizing Christians who are registered voters to go to the polls.

“Nothing is more important to me than my personal faith, and it is my faith that motivated me to be involved in the political process to begin with,” Mr. Carson said in a statement. “I believe Christians in this country can easily determine the next president of the United States and all other national and local leaders, should they simply show up at the polls.”

That Mr. Carson, 64, came this far in the campaign was an impressive feat considering that he began as a considerable long shot — a retired neurosurgeon who had never sought any public office before he announced his candidacy last spring.

Mr. Carson was already known through his memoirs, including “Gifted Hands,” which is widely read in schools and was made into a TV movie with Cuba Gooding. But he became a national political figure after delivering a keynote speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, in which he offered what some considered a rebuke of the policies of President Obama, who was sitting just feet way.

As an African-American with a hopeful story of upward mobility, Mr. Carson appealed to a Republican Party and electorate eager for a more diverse group of candidates, and quickly became a frequent guest and speaker at conservative gatherings.

But it was ultimately his weak understanding of foreign policy that staggered his campaign’s momentum.

In a November interview, two of his top advisers told The New York Times that Mr. Carson was struggling on that front. “Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East,” Duane R. Clarridge, an adviser on terrorism and national security, said at the time.

Deeply religious, Mr. Carson remains popular with evangelical Christians and appears eager to keep working in politics.

“Dr. Carson is a truly inspirational figure who embodies the values of the Christian community in this country,” said Johnnie Moore, a spokesman for My Faith Votes. “His involvement in our movement has the potential to literally activate millions of Christians, re-engaging them in political process whomever they choose to support.”

Mr. Carson did not endorse any other candidate for the Republican nomination on Friday, but he said that voters should choose someone who is accomplished and ethical and said that voters should not make a decision based on fear.

He also issued a call for civility to his former opponents, warning that the infighting among Republicans would make things easy for Democrats in a general election.

“They must understand that we, the Republicans, are not each other’s enemies,” Mr. Carson said. “We cannot afford to give the Democrats all this ammunition.”