Former Vice President Mike Pence has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race, saying “this is not my time”.
Mike Pence made the announcement at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on October 28.
“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” he wrote in a statement.
Mike Pence, 64, is the first major Republican candidate to suspend his campaign in a race led by former President Donald Trump.
He had languished in recent polls and had struggled to gain the support of Republican voters.
The former vice president’s campaign had also racked up large amounts of debt, with Mike Pence ending September owing $621,000 and having only US$1.2 million in the bank – significantly less than other Republican rivals.
“I am leaving this campaign, but I will never leave the fight for conservative values,” he wrote in a statement addressed to his supporters.
Mike Pence lost the support of many Republican voters when he publicly broke with Donald Trump over the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021, and when he presided over the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election results in Congress.
Donald Trump admonished Mike Pence for lacking “courage” when he refused to overturn the Democratic leader’s election victory.
Some rioters were heard chanting “hang Mike Pence” as they stormed the halls of Congress in 2021, and since then many Trump loyalists have viewed him as a traitor.
The former vice-president said in March that Donald Trump’s encouragement of the rioters had “endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day”.
In his resignation, Mike Pence did not endorse any other Republican candidates for the presidential election.
But he called on Americans to choose a leader that “will ‘appeal to the better angels of our nature’ and not only lead us to victory but also lead our nation with civility and back to those time-honoured principles that have always made America strong, prosperous and free.”
Mike Pence’s decision to withdraw from the Republican presidential campaign came shortly before the third presidential debate on November 8.
