(Las Vegas) Former Vice President Mike Pence, who spent four years dutifully serving President Donald Trump but refused to carry out Trump’s request to block the results of the 2020 election, said end Saturday in his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. By withdrawing, he launched a final appeal to his party to reconnect with conservative principles and resist the “siren song of populism”.
The announcement came at the end of his speech to a crowd of Jewish Republican Party donors gathered in Las Vegas and was greeted with cries of surprise. Mr. Pence received a standing ovation as he began his speech by expressing unreserved support for Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip.
He then moved on to a “more personal note,” saying that after much prayer and reflection, he had decided to withdraw from the race.
“It has become clear to me: this is not my time,” he declared in front of a crowd of 1,500 people, promising to “never give up the fight for conservative values.”
The crowd favorite, former South Carolina governor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, began her speech by praising Mr. Pence, adding several lines to her prepared remarks .
PHOTO JOHN LOCHER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican primary candidate Nikki Haley
He was a man of faith. He was a man of service. He fought for America and for Israel. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.
Nikki Haley, candidate for the Republican primaries
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, another candidate in the race for the Republican nomination, said in a statement: “The Vice President has been a prayer partner, a friend, and a man of integrity and conviction. The Republican Party is stronger today because of Mike’s leadership. Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey, who spoke earlier in the day, said that Mr. Pence, a former congressman, had “consistently fought for American values” and had “defended the Constitution the United States “.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who spoke immediately after Mr. Pence, did not mention the former vice president in his remarks. He made a publication on X, while Mme Haley was still speaking, calling Mr. Pence a “man of faith and principle.”
Eric Levine, a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition and a New York lawyer who is supporting Mr. Scott in the presidential race, said the announcement was the “very definition of patriotism.”
Obstacles
Mike Pence’s exit comes less than 90 days before the Iowa caucuses, on which Mr. Pence had staked his candidacy. Although Iowa is a tougher state than others in the Republican primary race for Mr. Trump, the former president remains dominant there. Mr Pence’s decision to end his candidacy demonstrates how difficult it is to unseat Mr Trump – who has been indicted four times, including twice for trying to stay in power – in a race to several candidates.
Mr. Pence is the highest-profile candidate to leave the race. He had not yet been announced as qualified for the Nov. 8 debate in Miami, for which candidates must meet a threshold of support in polls and have 70,000 unique donors. Mr. Pence’s campaign recently reported a debt of more than $600,000.
After entering the race in June, Mr. Pence sought to harness whatever energy might remain in the Trump-era Republican Party for a conservative in the vein of President Ronald Reagan. He worked to restore the party to its days of emphasis on fiscal discipline, upholding the order established after World War II, opposing government interference in business, and adopting an uncompromising stance on abortion.
But Mr. Pence, former governor of Indiana, had great difficulty raising funds and never managed to win in the polls, which his former running mate dominated.
He simply attacked Mr. Trump and defended his administration’s policies, while denouncing the former president’s efforts to cling to power as clearly unconstitutional.
From right-hand man to critic of Trump
During Mr. Pence’s campaign, Mr. Trump was twice indicted for trying to undermine President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory: in federal court in Washington and in Fulton County, Georgia.
PHOTO SAUL LOEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Former United States President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, in August 2020
Mr. Trump had pressured his vice president to reject Mr. Biden’s Electoral College victory. On January 6, 2021, this pressure campaign culminated with the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, some of whose members chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” “.
Mr. Pence has been praised for his resilience by those who view Donald Trump as an outright threat to democracy.
But on the campaign trail, where many Republican voters echoed and defended Mr. Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud, Mr. Pence at times faced hostile questions about why he had not tried to have Mr. Trump recognized as having won the election.
As the campaign progressed, Mr. Pence became more critical of the former president. More recently, after the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, Mr. Pence accused Mr. Trump and some of his other rivals of “appeasement” because of their isolationist approach to international affairs.
Mr. Pence is expected to be a key witness for federal prosecutors in Mr. Trump’s trial, expected to begin in March, on charges related to his efforts to stay in power.
At the end of his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, Mr. Pence said: “The only thing that would have been harder than failing is if we had never tried. »
And in a sharp attack on Mr. Trump’s behavior, he urged Republicans to “give [leur] country a Republican standard-bearer who, as Lincoln said, will appeal to the better angels of our nature.”
This article was originally published in the New York Times.