Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Ben Carson has announced he’s dropping out of the race.

The retired neurosurgeon, whose campaign has been filled with anti-LGBTI comments, posted a statement on his website saying he could see no way forward.

On Friday he told reporters he was leaving the campaign trail. Carson has not voiced support for any of the remaining candidates.

During the campaign Carson said transgender people in the military would be “a distraction” and a “social experiment.” Dr Carson said if he was president he would considering bring back the controversial ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.

The candidate also said gay people had caused the downfall of Rome, compared gay people to pedophiles, and said many people chose to be gay while in prison – and that this was proof that sexuality was choice.

Carson has announced that he has taken the post of national chairman for My Faith Votes, an organization focused on mobilizing Christian voters.

In a video posted to the groups website Dr Carson said he believed Christians could decide who the next president is.

“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,” he said.

The republican hopeful had a poor showing at ‘Super Tuesday’ on of the key stages of the process in deciding who would be each party’s nominees. Carson didn’t win any states and only secured three delegates.

Interestingly, the failed presidential candidate has a connections to Perth. The neurosurgeon undertook a residency in Perth in the early 1980’s and his youngest son Murray was born here.

OIP Staff