Former US Vice President Mike Pence, who reportedly lost the support of many Republican voters for breaking with former President Donald Trump over the 6 January Capitol riot in 2021, has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race.
According to the BBC, Pence is the first major Republican candidate to suspend his campaign in a race led by Trump.
Pence had languished in recent polls and had struggled to gain the support of Republican voters.
The former vice president’s campaign had also racked up large debts.
In statement addressed to supporters, Pence wrote: ‘I am leaving this campaign, but I will never leave the fight for conservative values.’
At the conclusion of the 2020 elections, Trump admonished Pence for lacking ‘courage’ when he refused to overturn the Democratic leader Joe Biden’s election victory.
The BBC reports that during the notorious Capitol riot, some rioters were heard chanting ‘hang Mike Pence’ as they stormed the halls of Congress in 2021, and that since then many Trump loyalists have viewed him as a traitor.
Pence said in March that Trump’s encouragement of the rioters had ‘endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day’.
[Image: Gage Skidmore, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51744826]