United States presidential candidate Mike Pence has dropped out of the 2024 race to become President. His reason? Financial challenges and lagging behind in the poll numbers.
At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s conference in Las Vegas on October 28 he said, “There is a time for every purpose under Heaven. After traveling the country for the past six months, it has become clear… this is not my time. After much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”
He ended his statement by saying, “I’m leaving this campagin, but let me promise you, I will never leave the fight for conservative values and I will never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land. So help me God.”
His decision was kept confidential right until the very end with few people knowing that he would be making the announcement. Pence has served as US vice president to Trump and has competed against him for the GOP nomination.
Pence drops out
Of all the candidates, Pence is the most high-profile candidate to drop out so far. Pence’s announcement is just ahead of the third presidential debate on Nov 8 in Miami. Pence did however reiterate his commitment to championing Republican leaders at every level of government.
Pence’s biggest challenge to date during his candidacy has been raising funds. In fact his FEC filing mid-October showed substantial debts and hardly any individual donations. From June to September Pence managed to raise some $3.3 million but his cash in hand amount amounted to $1.2 million leaving him in debt of $620,000. His personal contribution of $150,000 didn’t do much to alleviate his situation.
He also had to defend his decision to oppose Donald Trump and his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Each candidate also has to fulfill polling requirements to stand for office. To date four people have qualified to attend the Miami debate on November 8, they are former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramasamy and ex New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
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