Former Vice President Mike Pence, who had higher poll numbers than four GOP presidential contenders, was the latest Republican to drop out of the presidential race.
🚨 Another one bites the dust:
Mike Pence drops out of the presidential racepic.twitter.com/vAR33J2IrT
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) October 28, 2023
Pence realized that, indeed, it wasn’t his time to seek the presidency, given his ever-diminishing poll numbers. It seems the former vice president understood that he had no chance in the 2024 primary, which has been dominated by former President Donald Trump since the beginning.
“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence recently said at the Republican Jewish Coalition. “To the American people, I say: This is not my time, but it is still your time. I urge you to hold fast to what matters most — faith, family, and the Constitution.”
“It’s become clear to me,” the former vice president added. “This is not my time.”
Before dropping out of the presidential race, Pence was polling at 3.5%, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
Such a figure put the former vice president on top of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), 2.4%, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), 1.6%, as well as former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), who are both polling at 0.6%, respectively.
None of these candidates have dropped out of the race yet, although Christie predicts Pence was the first of many to do so. The former New Jersey governor told CNN he plans to stay in the race throughout the New Hampshire primary.
“I’m going to be ready to take on Donald Trump when people actually do start to vote,” Christie told the network.
Pence’s absence in a crowded GOP field will certainly have an effect that remains to be seen. The former vice president’s campaign was moot to begin with considering that Trump supporters view him unfavorably over his refusal to investigate the 2020 presidential election.
Many have offered different reasons for why Pence’s campaign ultimately crashed.
A biographer for former President Ronald Reagan, Craig Shirley, pointed out that the former vice president’s bashing of Trump and his constant use of left-wing news outlets to speak about the Capitol protests of Jan. 6, 2021, could be a reason he never caught on, as reported by the Washington Examiner.
“Bashing Donald Trump is not a platform,” Shirley said. “Jan. 6 doesn’t impact the daily lives of Americans, and it’s a wash among the tiny minority that really cares about it.”
