Republican Ben Carson officially announced Friday he is dropping out of this year's presidential race, two days after he was suspending campaign activities and not participating in Thursday's GOP debate. 

Carson made his announcement official at Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. 

His campaign failed to gain traction after briefly leading in national polling in November. Carson faced scrutiny for comments he made in his book, which caused Carson to fire back at the media and critics. 

Through Super Tuesday, Carson had only received about 6 percent of the vote, and eight delegates. Carson's best performance was in Alaska  where he received 11 percent of the vote, good enough for a fourth-place finish. 

Carson's departure leaves the GOP race with four remaining candidates. Businessman Donald Trump leads all candidates. He is followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Ohio Gov. John Kasich is in a distant fourth place.