Sentence:  State Senator McClintock appeared on CNN's Inside Politics on Tuesday and told me he had no intention of following Ueberroth's lead and <WSD>ceding the field</WSD> to Schwarzenegger: "I'm in this race right to the finish line." 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To withdraw from any confrontational or potentially confrontational situation; to avoid participating in a competition or contest.