Report: Tancredo to drop out of presidential race

DENVER – Several news organizations are reporting Republican presidential candidate and Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo plans to call it quits in his bid for the presidency.

The reports come from The Denver Post, NBC News and The Associated Press.

Tancredo scheduled a Thursday news conference in Des Moines for a "major announcement," but did not release any information regarding the meeting. He has consistently polled at the back of the seven-person GOP field.

Tancredo has based his campaign on opposition to illegal immigration; running television ads that link lax border security to terrorist attacks, rape and other crimes.

In a recent ad Tancredo ran in Iowa, he spliced images of tattooed Hispanic men, who he called "Central American gang members," and bloody bodies, blaming "gutless politicians who refuse to defend our borders."

His earlier ad said Islamic terrorists who "froth with hate" have entered the United States. It showed a hooded man appearing to blow up a shopping mall, leaving bloodied bodies behind.

That ad drew charges of fear-mongering.

"The congressman has said from day one that his goal has been to change the debate on immigration to focus on securing our borders and enforcing our laws," said Tancredo spokesman Alan Moore when the ad first appeared in early December. "If no one else is going to talk about it, then we have to because he is a champion of illegal immigration reform."

Political consultant Katy Atkinson says Tancredo may have fallen short of winning over voters but he made strides in pushing his platform against illegal immigration. As displayed in national debates, Atkinson says candidates from both parties had to define their stances on illegal immigration, and she attributes much of that to Tancredo's "loudness."

"Immigration hasn't been on anybody's radar up until Tom Tancredo started making a big issue about it and now it's a huge issue on people's radar and it's an issue that both Republicans and Democrats want to be on the right side of," said Atkinson.

Tancredo announced in October he wouldn't seek a sixth term in Congress. He will leave his congressional seat in 2008. By then, he would've spent a decade in Washington D.C., much of that time trying to raise awareness about the issue that has come to define his policies and positions.

9NEWS.com will live stream Tancredo's 1 p.m. press conference. A link will be provided on the homepage.