Ben Carson vows to soldier on despite coming last in South Carolina

HUD Secretary Ben Carson testifies before Congress

Ben Carson has vowed to fight on in the Republican presidential race, despite coming last in yesterdayā€™s South Carolina Primary.

Consistently anti-LGBT Carson placed sixth in the Primary on Saturday with 6.6 percent of the vote, but said he would not suspend his campaign.

ā€œThere are news people here who think Iā€™m going to make a concession speech. This is a just the beginning speech,ā€ Carson said.

Ben Carson2

ā€œWhat we need is recognition of the fact that the way our country was designed ā€” it was designed for citizen-statesmen, not career politicians,ā€ Carson said last night.

He said he wanted to remind America that the ā€œpolitical classā€ and pundits should not dictate how the presidential race goes down.

ā€œThey believe that they have complete control of our country. They only have complete control if we give them complete control,ā€ he said.

The retired neurosurgeon said he wanted to stay in the race for his supporters.

ā€œIā€™m getting a lot of pressure to make sure I stay in the race,ā€ Carson told CNN of his supporters. ā€œTheyā€™re reminding me that Iā€™m here because I responded to their imploring me to get involved. And I respect that and Iā€™m not just going to walk away from the millions of people who are supporting me.ā€

Although some have speculated that Carson will go to Nevada for the next contest, as he already has the infrastructure there, before dropping out on Wednesday.

Jeb ā€˜Jeb!ā€™ Bush dropped out of the race, after coming fourth last night. Here PinkNews looks back at some of the sadder, and most homophobic moments of his campaign.

Donald Trump was declared the winner of the South Carolina Republican Primary, paving his way for the Republican nomination.

Ted Cruz placed third and Marcus Rubio came second with 22.3 and 22.5 percent of the vote respectively.

John Kasich came fifth with 7.6 percent of the vote.

Carson has made a stunning number of homophobic and transphobic statements as he has campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination, including saying that transgender people in the millitary would be a ā€œdistractionā€ and a ā€œsocial experimentā€ that the millitary did not need.

He has also stated that he would consider reintroducing donā€™t ask donā€™t tell and that he thinks that LGBT people caused the fall of Rome.