Former United States’ Vice President, Mike Pence, has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race, saying “this is not my time.”
He made the announcement at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon.
“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets”, he wrote in a statement.
Pence is the first major Republican candidate to suspend his campaign in a race led by former President Donald Trump.
Pence had been trailing behind Trump in the polls.
The former vice president’s campaign has also racked up large amounts of debt, with Mr Pence ending September owing $621,000 (£512,038) and having only US$1.2m (£989,446) in the bank – significantly less than other Republican rivals.
The decision, more than two months before the Iowa caucuses that he had staked his campaign on, saves Pence from the embarrassment of failing to qualify for the third Republican primary debate, November 8 in Miami.
But the 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 — not something a vice president could do.
While Pence averted a constitutional crisis by rejecting the scheme, he drew Trump’s fury, as well as the wrath of many of Trump’s supporters who believed his lies and still see Pence as a traitor.
