In a little more than two months, his presidential bid had amassed a debt of roughly $700,000, campaign manager Rick Wiley told the governor in a call Sunday night. A pared-down effort focused on staying afloat in Iowa would still cost around $1 million a month because of ongoing costs associated with ballot access, accounting and vendor contracts.

“It’s going to be tough to raise that million a month, I’ll be honest with you,” Wiley said he told Walker, according to an account he gave The Washington Post on Tuesday evening.

He said the governor’s response was calm: “OK, thank you for the information.”

But by the next day, after meeting with campaign chairman Michael W. Grebe at the Governor’s Mansion, Walker had come to a decision: He was quitting the race.