Ben Carson says even if he wanted to drop out of the race, his supporters wouldn't let him

(Image credit: Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)

Ben Carson didn't do very well in the New Hampshire primary — he came in second-to-last, beating only Jim Gilmore — but he said his backers aren't going to let him give up.

"I'm not getting any pressure from our millions of supporters" to exit the race, he told CNN Wednesday. "I'm getting a lot of pressure to make sure I stay in the race. They're reminding me that I'm here because I responded to their imploring me to get involved. And I respect that and I'm not just going to walk away from the millions of people who are supporting me."

Carson said he thinks he can win South Carolina, and will "be putting a lot of time, resources, and effort here." The campaign did not spend "nearly as much money in New Hampshire as many others," he added, because they "recognized there were certain things that were going to happen there. So you have to pick your battles very carefully. We're doing just fine, people will continue to support us, we will move forward."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.