Washington ? Bob Graham, a political veteran whose low-key style failed to gain traction in the crowded Democratic presidential race, said Monday night he was ending his campaign.

“I’m leaving because I have made the judgment that I cannot be elected president of the United States,” Graham said in announcing his exit from the race on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

He said he was not successful because he started his campaign too late and had trouble raising money.

Graham, one of the most popular lawmakers in his home state of Florida, said he has not decided whether he would run for re-election to his Senate seat, which he has held since 1987.

During the campaign, Graham cast himself as the Democrats’ most experienced and electable presidential candidate, but he struggled near the bottom of the 10-way nomination race.

In seven months of fund raising, he brought in around $5 million, not enough to compete with six Democratic rivals who raised at least twice as much. Graham’s advisers said he was down to less than $1 million in his account — not enough to run a credible nationwide campaign.

Graham based much of his campaign on his vote against the military conflict in Iraq. Yet anti-war activists preferred Howard Dean’s fist-pounding indignation to Graham’s calm, measured arguments against President Bush’s foreign policy.

Graham’s composed manner camouflaged his harsh accusations against the White House. He accused Bush of endangering Americans by abandoning the fight against terror to wage war in Iraq, a country that he said did not pose an immediate threat to the United States.

He said the White House had a “Nixonian stench” and a pattern of keeping information from the American people. He called Bush’s tax cuts “immoral” and “an economic dagger pointed at the backs of all Americans.”