Trump's ex-Vice Pres Pence drops out of Presidential race as campaign struggles

28 October 2023 , 18:43

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Mike Pence has dropped out of the US presidential race (Image: Getty Images)

Former Vice President Mike Pence has dropped his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in the US.

Pence, who worked under Donald Trump's presidency has ended his campaign as Republican president for the White House after struggling to raise money and gain traction in the polls.

"After much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today," Pence said at the Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in Las Vegas. "We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets. The only thing that would have been harder than coming up short, would have been if we never tried at all.''

“It’s become clear to me that this is not my time,” he told the crowd of 1,500, adding he would “never leave the fight for conservative values.” After his speech announcing that he would be suspending his campaign to become the 2024 Republican candidate, he received a standing ovation. His wife Karen then joined him on stage.

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The decision comes more than two months before the Iowa caucuses that Pence had staked his successes on. This means that Pence will not have to qualify for the third Republican primary debate on November 8 in Miami. After Pence spent years as Trump's most loyal lieutenant, only to be scapegoated during their final days in office. Trump became convinced that Pence somehow had the power to overturn the results of the 2020 election and keep both men in office - not something a vice president could do.

@I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today" (AFP via Getty Images)

Now Trump remains in the race as Pence drops out. Pence averted a constitutional crisis by rejecting the scheme, many Trump loyalists were infuriated with Pence, seeing him as a traitor. Among Trump critics, meanwhile, Pence was seen as an enabler who defended the former president at every turn and refused to criticise even the former president's most indefensible actions time and again.

As a result, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from August found that the majority of US adults, 57%, viewed Pence negatively, with only 28% having a positive view. Throughout his campaign, the former Indiana governor and congressman had insisted that while he was well-known by voters, he was not "known well", and 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 such as former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Rick Santorum.

Pence often campaigned with his wife, Karen, a Christian school teacher, and emphasised his hardline 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 January 6 2021, explaining to voters over and over that he had done his constitutional duty that day, knowing full well the political consequences. It was a strategy that aides believed would help defuse the issue and earn Pence the respect of a majority of Republicans, whom they were convinced did not agree with Trump's actions.

But even in his safe state of Iowa, Pence struggled to gain traction. He had an equally uphill climb with donors, despite years of connections. At the end of September Pence had just 1.18 million dollars (£972,282) in the bank and 621,000 dollars (£512,000) in debt, according to his most recent campaign filing. That debt number probably has grown in the weeks since and seemingly will take years for Pence, who is not independently wealthy, to pay off.

Emilia Randall