Former U.S. vice-president Mike Pence is dropping his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, ending his campaign for the White House after struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls.
“It’s become clear to me: This is not my time,” Pence said at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in Las Vegas. “After much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”
“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence went on to tell the friendly audience, which reacted with audible surprise to the announcement and gave him multiple standing ovations.
Pence becomes the first major candidate to leave a race that has been dominated by his former boss-turned-rival, Donald Trump.
Pence’s struggles underscore just how much Trump has transformed the party. A former vice-president would typically be seen as a formidable challenger in any primary, but Pence has struggled to find a base of support.
The decision, more than two months before the Iowa caucuses that he’d staked his campaign on, saves Pence from from accumulating additional debt, as well as the embarrassment of potentially failing to qualify for the third Republican primary debate, Nov. 8 in Miami.
But his withdrawal is a huge blow for a politician who spent years biding his time as Trump’s most loyal lieutenant, only to be scapegoated during their final days in office when Trump became convinced that Pence somehow had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep both men in office — a power Pence did not possess.
Plenty of critics
While Pence averted a constitutional crisis by rejecting the scheme, he drew Trump’s fury along with the wrath of many of Trump’s supporters.
Among Trump critics, meanwhile, Pence was seen as an enabler who defended the former president at every turn and refused time and again to criticize even Trump’s most indefensible actions time and again.
Throughout his campaign, the former Indiana governor and congressman had insisted that while he was well-known by voters, he was not “known well.” He set out to change that with an aggressive schedule that included numerous stops at diners and Pizza Ranch restaurants.
Pence had been betting on Iowa, a state with a large white Evangelical population that has a long history of elevating religious and socially conservative candidates.
Pence 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 when a pregnancy is unviable. He repeatedly called on his fellow candidates to support a minimum 15-week national ban and he pushed to ban drugs used as alternatives to surgical procedures.
He tried to confront head-on his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, repeatedly explaining to voters that he had done his constitutional duty that day, knowing full well the political consequences. It was a strategy aimed at defusing the issue and earning Pence the respect from Republicans whom aides believed did not agree with Trump’s actions.
But even in Iowa, Pence struggled to gain traction.
He had an equally uphill climb raising money, despite years-long relationships with donors. Pence ended September with just $1.18 million US in the bank and $621,000 in debt, according to his most recent campaign filing. That debt had grown in the weeks since and adding to it would have taken Pence, who is not independently wealthy, years pay off.