Former Vice President
Mike Pence has suspended his campaign for president amid lagging poll numbers and financial challenges. He announced the suspension while speaking at the
Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference in
Las Vegas on Saturday. Pence’s theory of his candidacy was simple – he broke from then-President
Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, and refocused on the core conservative principles that founded the modern Republican Party with Ronald Reagan, his political beacon. Pence returned to that idea throughout his
White House bid, from campaign signs intentionally harkening back to Reagan’s 1984 campaign to speeches urging his party to turn away from populism. His exit from the 2024 race shows today’s GOP has long left that kind of conservatism he represents, reshaped by Trump, who continues to be the dominant candidate in the race, despite his legal troubles. Pence, who was Indiana governor and a US congressman before being vice president, in early June. He chose to launch his campaign in Iowa, rather than his home state of Indiana, an indication of how much importance he was placing on the early voting state. He attempted to visit , focusing on face-to-face interactions in intimate settings. The Midwestern native leaned on his faith and courted fellow conservative evangelicals, a crucial voting bloc in the state.