Former Vice President Mike Pence has suspended his 2024 presidential campaign. He announced the news Saturday afternoon at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference in Las Vegas.
“So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today,” Pence said, causing the audience to gasp.
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“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence said. “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.”
With only months to go before the primaries, Pence struggled to attract enough donors to qualify for the Republican debates. The third debate is less than two weeks away, and Pence had yet to meet the threshold of 70,000 individual donors needed by the Republican National Committee to take the stage in Miami, but it appears he reached the polling requirements after struggling to gain traction early on in the polls, falling in the low single digits nationally.
The former vice president was joined by several GOP 2024 presidential candidates at the annual conference on Saturday. President Donald Trump, whose relationship with Pence has gone from supportive to competitive, is set to speak at the event as well.
Pence’s relationship with Trump strained after the vice president found himself in a dividing role mounted by pressure to overturn the 2020 election results. Those efforts culminated on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters rioted at the Capitol, some expressing they wanted to harm Pence.
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Pence received a standing ovation from the crowd when he said he was dropping out of the race, and former second lady Karen Pence joined him onstage at the end of his remarks.
Pence launched his presidential campaign on June 5 after months of speculation that he would join the packed Republican race.
