BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN

He declared victory after placing third in New Hampshire last week.

HUNTSMAN, JAN. 10: “Vote by vote, we got it done ladies and gentleman!”

But Jon Huntsman isn’t taking his “ticket to ride” any further down the campaign trail. The news broke Sunday night -- but he didn’t make it official til late Monday morning.

HUNTSMAN, VIA C-SPAN: “Today I am suspending my campaign for the presidency.”

And the former Utah governor is now backing Mitt Romney -- the candidate some say the Huntsman camp went after the hardest during the campaign. So why the change of heart? NBC explains.

“One adviser says Huntsman's concern was that his path going forward would only take votes from Governor Mitt Romney saying he was not one to stand in the way of a candidate best able to beat Barack Obama.”

The announcement isn’t the biggest of campaign surprises -- but then again -- just HOURS before the news broke -- Huntsman supporters got this email:

The campaign announced a major endorsement -- from South Carolina’s biggest newspaper The State.

It asked for a donation.

Then, at the end -- “On to Victory!”

So -- “On to victory!” followed by -- dropping out -- a little puzzling. But BuzzFeed suggests there’s a reason the campaign never really caught fire.

“Huntsman’s campaign has been, from the beginning, a fantasy driven by a fundamental misunderstanding of his own party. … The party Huntsman imagined -- modernizing, reforming, and youthful … He bet, too early, on a fantasy...”

But CNN seems to think -- 2012 was never really the goal anyway.

“So do you think we'll see him again? There’s been talk that this was just a trial run for 2016.”

If you’re keeping count -- that leaves five major contenders for the GOP presidential nomination. This is what we call the TV news echo chamber:

NBC: “And then were five.”
FOX New: “And then there were five.”
CBS: “And then there were five.”
CNN: “And then there were five.”

So whose gain is Huntsman’s loss? Politico notes:

“Although Huntsman was only polling at about 5 percent in South Carolina, his voters are most likely to wind up with Romney. If either Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum makes a run at the frontrunner in the final week, those handful of votes that otherwise would've gone to Huntsman could prove pivotal.”

The newly-whittled down field debates Monday night in South Carolina.