Ben Carson vows to soldier on despite South Carolina loss

Ben Carson is not dropping out of the Republican presidential race just yet.

Despite a likely sixth place finish in South Carolina, the retired neurosurgeon told a crowd at his primary night party on Saturday that not he would suspend his campaign.

"What we need is recognition of the fact that the way our country was designed — it was designed for citizen-statesmen, not career politicians," Carson said.

Click through images from the South Carolina primary:

Carson hasn't placed higher than fourth place in any of the nominating states thus far.

On Saturday, Carson said that he would stay in the race to remind Americans that the "political class" and political pundits should not have the ability to dictate the direction of the presidential race.

"They believe that they have complete control of our country. They only have complete control if we give them complete control," he said.

Carson added:

This is a message that I'm going to be taking across the nation, to try and help the people of America recognize that we still have the ability to dictate the course of our country, we still have the ability to save it for the next generation.

Carson has maintained that the reason he is staying in the race is because his supporters don't want him to drop out.

"I'm getting a lot of pressure to make sure I stay in the race," Carson told CNN of his supporters. "They're reminding me that I'm here because I responded to their imploring me to get involved. And I respect that and I'm not just going to walk away from the millions of people who are supporting me."

Though Carson attempted to rally supporters on Saturday, some rumors swirled that he may drop out after the Nevada contest on Tuesday.

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