Ex-Vice President Mike Pence Dropped From Republican Presidential Race

 

Image Source: Al-Jazeera

The Republican leader struggled to raise money and win elections after ending his campaign for the White House.

Former Vice President Mike Pence dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday, ending his campaign for the White House as he struggles to raise money and win elections. had been.

"It's become clear to me: This is not my time," Pence said at the annual gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) in Las Vegas.

"So after much prayer and consideration, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today."

"We always knew it would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets," Pence told the friendly audience, which reacted with audible surprise to the announcement and received several standing ovations. Applauded.

Pence is the first major candidate to drop out of a race dominated by his former boss-turned-rival Donald Trump, and his struggles underscore how much Trump has changed the party. A former vice president would normally be seen as a strong challenger in any primary, but Pence has struggled to find a base of support.

It was unclear whether, if any, the candidates would benefit from his departure, given Pence's limited support. But those hoping the former president would move the party forward welcomed the news as a step toward consolidating around an alternative to Trump.

Pence did not endorse any of his rivals on Saturday but continued to echo the language he used to criticize Trump.

"I urge all my fellow Republicans here to give our country a Republican standard that will, as Lincoln said, appeal to the better angels of our nature," he said, "and not just win us over." lead to, but rather guide our nation. A civilized return to the principles that have always made America strong and prosperous and free.

Trump, who spoke shortly after Pence at the RJC event, did not acknowledge his former vice president's announcement on stage, but said at a separate event in Las Vegas on Saturday night that he believed Pence would support him. are bound.

"He should endorse me. I elected him, made him vice president. But in politics, people can be very disloyal," he said.

A huge blow

Pence's decision, two months before the Iowa caucuses on which he staked his campaign, protects him from accumulating additional debt, as well as qualifying for the third Republican primary debate on Nov. 8 in Miami. Also the shame of possibly failing to do so.

The Republican leader ended September with just $1.18 million in the bank and $621,000 in debt, according to his most recent campaign filing. The debt grew in the weeks that followed and could have taken years for Pence, who is not independently wealthy, to pay it off.

His resignation is a major blow for a politician who spent years serving as one of Trump's most loyal lieutenants, only to be made a scapegoat in his final days in office when Trump believes Gone is that Pence somehow has the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Keep both men in office - which he didn't.

While Pence averted a constitutional crisis by rejecting the scheme, it drew the ire of Trump as well as many of Trump's supporters, who still believed his lies about the election and called Pence a traitor. Seen as

Meanwhile, among Trump's critics, Pence was seen as a stalwart who defended the former president at every turn and refused to criticize Trump's most indefensible actions.

As a result, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from August found that a majority of American adults, 57 percent, view Pence unfavorably, compared to just 28 percent.

Republican leaders were betting on Iowa, a state with a large white evangelical population, to elevate religiously and socially conservative candidates such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Rick Santorum. It has a long history.

He often campaigned with his wife, Karen, a Christian school teacher, and emphasized his hard-line views on issues such as abortion, which he opposes even in cases where the pregnancy is not viable. . He has repeatedly called on his fellow candidates to support a national ban of at least 15 weeks and has pushed for a ban on drugs used as alternatives to surgical procedures.

But the former U.S. vice president struggled to gain ground in Iowa as well.

(Courtesy: Al-Jazeera)