Former U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) suspended his 2016 campaign for the Democratic nominee for President Tuesday, but didn’t rule out a third party bid.
“I’m stepping aside from the Democratic primary process,” he said. “As of today, I’m not involved in the Democratic primary process.”
Webb spoke at a news conference at the National Press Club in D.C.
“Americans don’t like the extremes in which both parties have moved in recent years and, quite frankly, neither do I,” Webb said.
Webb began his political career as a Republican and served as secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration.
“If I ran as an independent we would not have the same problems that we had running as a Democrat,” Webb said.
Webb didn’t rule out a campaign as an independent for the presidency at the news conference.
“We’ll just have to see what happens next,” Webb said at his announcement.
Webb said he thought he could beat both Republican presidential candidate frontrunner Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
He said later in his news conference that he didn’t “see” himself endorsing anyone.
This post has been updated.
