Jim Gavin has withdrawn from the presidential race, Fianna Fáil stated on Sunday night.

The former Dublin football manager, who met with farmers at the recent National Ploughing Championships, came under pressure over the weekend to address allegations that a former tenant of his was owed a rent refund.

Gavin was the preferred candidate for 30.28% of 1,060 farmers polled by the Irish Farmers Journal at the National Ploughing Championships 2025.

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Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys received the largest share of the farmer vote in a snap poll of the presidential election candidates conducted by the Irish Farmers Journal.

Humphreys topped the poll, taking home 38.77% of the vote.

The other 61% of farmers were split in their voting preference, with independent Catherine Connolly and Fianna Fáil’s Gavin neck-and-neck for the farmer vote, polling at 30.94% and 30.28%, respectively.

A separate poll run on www.farmersjournal.ie on Sunday 28 September until Wednesday 1 October attracted 929 votes from Irish Farmers Journal website users and saw Humphreys leading the pack with 614 votes. Connolly received 226 votes and Gavin received 89 votes.