Rick Perry
Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he is ending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Reuters

A live stream of Rick Perry's announcement that he will end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and endorse Newt Gingrich on Thursday will be live streamed at 11 a.m. EST on CNN.

The announcement comes ahead of tonight's debate in South Carolina, which will hold its primary on Saturday.

The Texas Governor has had a difficult time breaking into the lead throughout the race, with disappointing showings in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Polls show Perry tracking in the single digits and dead last behind Mitt Romney, Gingrich, and Rep. Ron Paul with 7 percent, according to Gallup.

Dropping out would narrow the field of candidates vying for the GOP's conservative base. Perry had ignored the New Hampshire primary entirely and banked on South Carolina to recharge a flagging candidacy.

South Carolinians are looking for a conservative candidate that will get this country back working again and I am it, Perry said on CNN last week.

According to POLITICO, Gingrich has been lobbying Perry staffers recently in an effort to pull the Texas governor into supporting him. The former House Speaker also wrote the introduction to Perry's book Fed Up!

In an earlier interview, Perry told CNN he was not yet ready to toss in the towel in South Carolina, despite poor showings in the polls. We're convinced that that's our goal, so the idea that we're going to do anything else, other than try to impact this election is - that's why we got in it. We didn't get in it because it was our purpose in life to be the president of the United States. We did it because it was our purpose to serve this country, and that's what we've been called for, and that's what we're going to continue doing.