In a surprise move, former Vice President Mike Pence suspended his 2024 presidential campaign during an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition. Pence’s campaign never really took off and had long struggled in the polls and with fundraising.
Summary
In a surprise move, former Vice President Mike Pence suspended his 2024 presidential campaign during an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition. Pence’s campaign never really took off and had long struggled in the polls and with fundraising.
- “It’s become clear to me it’s not my time,” Pence told the conference attendees. “I’ve decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”
- Pence continued, to audible gasps from the crowd: “”Traveling over the country over the past six months, I came here to say it’s become clear to me: This is not my time. So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”
- The Pence campaign struggled from the outset with raising money and earning public support. Pence recently donated $150,000 of his own money to prop up his flailing operation.
- “We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence said in a statement. “I am leaving this campaign, but I will never leave the fight for conservative values.”
- Pence represented Indiana in Congress for six terms from 2001 to 2013 before winning the 2012 Indiana gubernatorial election. Then-Gov. Pence was selected by Donald Trump to join the ticket in 2016 but broke with Trump after the former president urged Pence to unlawfully overturn the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. Pence refused.
- The Washington Post reported, “Advisers said he decided to make his announcement at the RJC because he wanted to underscore his view that the United States must continue to play a central role in backing Israel in its war with Hamas, which is emblematic of the message he has been driving that the party should reject the populist and isolationist tendencies that are increasingly being embraced by the far-right flank of the Republican Party. That includes the idea that America has a critical role to play in helping democracies like Israel and Ukraine defend themselves.”
- The New York Times observed, “The departure from the race came less than 90 days before the Iowa caucuses, on which Mr. Pence had staked his candidacy. But while Iowa is a more difficult early state in the Republican primary contests for Mr. Trump than some of the others, the former president remains dominant there. And Mr. Pence’s decision to end his run underscores how tricky the path is to topple Mr. Trump — who has been indicted four times, including twice for efforts to stay in power — in a multicandidate field.”
- Axios pointed out “Pence had roughly $620,000 in debt at the end of the third quarter and entered October with just $1.18 million cash on hand, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. By comparison, Trump entered October with more than $37 million in cash on hand.”
- People close to Pence told Fox News “the final decision to drop out of the race came just in the past day or two, after recent fundraising didn’t alleviate concerns about reaching the donor threshold to qualify for the Nov. 8 debate in Miami.”
- The New York Post noted “Pence has also faced ire from many grassroots Republican voters who have consistently blamed him for not aiding Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Pence has long insisted such activity from him would have been unconstitutional.”
- The Wall Street Journal observed, “Pence’s decision comes just ahead of the expected release of an Iowa Poll on Monday morning. The survey, the most closely watched poll in the state, is led by the Des Moines Register newspaper and may show the former vice president struggling in a state where he has almost totally focused his campaign.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
