Former US Vice President Mike Pence announced on Saturday that he is withdrawing his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for the 2024 presidential elections.
“I have come to tell you that it has become clear to me: This is not my time,” Mike Pence declared, addressing a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) at a conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“After careful consideration and prayer, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president,” he said.
The chances of candidate Pence, who was struggling in opinion polls with about 3.8% of voting intentions according to the specialized website fivethirtyeight.com, were not slim against his former president Donald Trump, the most likely candidate in the Republican Party primaries, despite his legal setbacks.
He did not give any instructions aimed at supporting this or that candidate during this speech, which completely surprised his audience.
All eight major candidates for the Republican nomination are scheduled to speak at this weekend’s rally, including Donald Trump, who is leading in the polls, and his closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
After years of unwavering loyalty to Donald Trump, his former vice president changed his tune after the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This evangelical Christian, a fierce opponent of abortion, had decided to challenge his former boss during the 2024 Republican primaries, but his chances quickly looked slimmer.
Activists loyal to the former president consider him a “traitor” because he witnessed Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election to Congress.
