(CNN) -- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Monday he will not run for president in 2012.
"I will not be a candidate for president next year," Barbour, a Republican, said in a statement. "This has been a difficult, personal decision, and I am very grateful to my family for their total support of my going forward, had that been what I decided."
Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said he would continue serving as governor of Mississippi and work to "elect a new Republican president in 2012."
Although he is popular among Washington insiders, he has had trouble gaining traction in recent national polls. In an April CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll of likely Republican voters, Barbour,
dre headphones, 63, received less than half of 1%. But he did win a recent straw poll in Charleston County,
dre headphones, South Carolina, with 22%.
His announcement eliminates one name from a still crowded field of potential Republican candidates against President Barack Obama's re-election bid.
One of the likely GOP contenders for the party's nomination,
head headphones, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, praised Barbour as "one of the Republican Party's great leaders."
"When Republicans defeat Barack Obama next year, it will be thanks to the solid party foundation Haley helped build," Pawlenty said in a statement.
GOP consultant Ford O'Connell, who worked on Barbour's 2007 gubernatorial re-election campaign and for the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008, said Barbour's decision makes him "the most important man in the Republican Party not running for president."
"There are only three things Haley Barbour loves more than America: his wife, Marsha, his family and Mississippi. And it is time for him to focus on the things he cares about most," O'Connell said. "One of the hallmarks of Haley Barbour is his low-key behind-the-scenes effectiveness, and I don't expect that to diminish in any way."
CNN's Peter Hamby, Kevin Bohn and Gabriella Schwarz contributed to this report.
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