Mitt Romney told supporters Friday, Jan 30, that he would not run for president in 2016, ending three weeks of public speculation and sparing the Republican Party a potentially bruising nominating battle between its past nominee and its rising stars, the Washington Post reports.

“After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I’ve decided it is best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee,” Romney said in a statement he read to supporters on a conference call Friday morning.

Romney insisted that he would have had enough support from potential donors to be “more than competitive” and that the positive reaction he heard from Republican activists was “surprising and heartening.”

“I am convinced that we could win the nomination, but fully realize it would have been difficult test and a hard fight,” Romney said.

Romney had been publicly weighing a third run at the White House for three weeks after telling a group of former campaign donors in New York on Jan 9 that he still wanted to be president.

Romney’s decision to forgo a third run came after a lengthy meeting of Romney’s inner circle in Boston last Friday, during which they evaluated feedback from former campaign donors and activists in key early voting states.