Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain suspended his bid for the White House on Saturday, telling supporters in Atlanta that the media attention over a string of sexual misconduct accusations against him had become too much of a distraction to his campaign and a burden on his family.
Cain made the announcement at what was supposed to be the opening day of his campaign’s Atlanta headquarters. Despite the pending bad news, Cain didn’t cancel the band and barbecue and he even provided supporters with Cain T-shirts, lending an oddly festive mood to the end of an improbable campaign.
Just weeks before, Cain, a former pizza chain CEO who has never held elected office, led the polls and was poised to compete in some of the key early primary states. But by late last week, he had sunk to the low single digits in Iowa, according to a Des Moines Register poll, as voters began to digest sexual harassment claims and a new story by an Atlanta woman who said she had a 13-year affair with Cain.
Pollster Ron Faucheux, president of Clarus Research Group, said the latest revelation by Ginger White obviously hurt the candidate, but his downfall came after voters took a closer look at his ability to lead.
Cain has stumbled several times on foreign policy questions and often gave vague answers during debates that suggested he had little grasp of the subject.
“Cain was really seen by voters as a protest vehicle,” Faucheux told The Washington Examiner. “And they measured him by the standards of a protest candidate, which is an easier standard to meet. But when he got to the top of the polls, people began to judge him as a presidential candidate and not a protest candidate and he just wasn’t prepared to meet that.”
Cain suspended his campaign – rather than quit outright – so he could continue to accept contributions to pay his campaign expenses or sponsor other election-related initiatives. Cain announced one such initiative Saturday.
Cain said he would continue to influence the race through a website, TheCainSolutions.com. Cain said he plans to use the site to keep promoting his ideas, including the 9 percent tax plan which initially helped push him ahead of all the other candidates, in an effort to change Washington.
“Plan B is that we are going to have to change it from the outside,” Cain told supporters. “It’ll take a little longer. We’re going to have to work a little harder. But we will change it from the outside.”
While Cain’s support was already plummeting before he dropped out, the remaining candidates — particularly former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — will be scrambling to pick up those votes. Like Cain, Gingrich is considered a more conservative alternative to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has led the polls off and on since the race began.
Cain, Gingrich said shortly after the announcement, “got our country talking about the critical issue of how to reform our tax code and he elevated the dialogue of the Republican presidential primary in the process.”
Some polls indicate Gingrich is set to pick up Cain’s support, but GOP pollster Ed Goeas found Cain support evenly split between Romney and Gingrich, nationally.
Goeas said Gingrich could now be in position to win the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3.
“A lot of the voters who were with Cain were just kind of parking there,” Goeas said. “The question is if Newt is surging at the point that is right for Iowa, and if he is putting the right emphasis on Iowa, then you can see him as the true alternative in Iowa.”
