MINNESOTA CONGRESSWOMAN Michele Bachmann has called a halt to her presidential campaign after a disappointing fifth-place finish in last night’s opening caucus for the Republican nomination.

Speaking in Des Moines – the capital of the state which gave her only 5 per cent of the vote last night, despite her being born there – Bachmann said she had decided to “stand aside” after the voters of Iowa had spoken with a “clear voice”.

The congresswoman – who has been in Congress for little over five years – said she had told voters “the truth: that our country is in very serious trouble.”

Bachmann had sought to be the main opponent to Barack Obama in this November’s presidential election because of his “socialist policies”, she said, and shared serious reservations about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – better known as ‘Obamacare’, a term she used 11 times in her speech.

“Obamacare represents the largest expansion of entitlement spending in our country’s history,” she said, revealing that she had decided to run for the presidency the day the Act had been signed.

The next election cycle, she added, represented “a turning point for our country and our economy” and was the only chance to repeal this Act before it became too late and had already trigged major government spending.

“Its repeal is more than a cliché,” she added.

Would future generations ask of us, gathered here today: What did we do? What did we give? What did we sacrifice, to ensure the survival of this incomparable republic?

Bachmann had declared fundraising of $8.4m as of the end of September, putting her fourth in the Republican fundraising stakes behind Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Ron Paul.

She will no longer be entitled to continue fundraising – something she would have been able to do had she merely ‘suspended’ her campaign as other Republicans, like Herman Cain, have done.

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