Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday announced that he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, prompting cheers online from supporters of Donald Trump and the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) political movement.
Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president, was among the packed crowd of candidates seeking the 2024 GOP nomination for president, all of whom have struggled against the overwhelming polling strength of Trump and his reelection bid. Pence, in particular, struggled greatly and garnered only single-digit support from likely Republican voters. His troubles were attributed by some to his unpopularity with independents and moderate Republicans, for his association with the Trump administration and his staunch political positions, and among MAGA Republicans, over his refusal to go along with Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
In light of that unpopularity, Pence’s withdrawal from the race on Saturday prompted cheers on social media from supporters of Trump. In a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Stew Peters, a prominent anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, lambasted Pence as a fake Christian.
“FAKE Christian and American traitor, Mike Pence, has suspended his presidential campaign,” he wrote.
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“Mike Pence just suspended his campaign for President and guess what? NO ONE CARES just like no one cared when he announced,” an X user going only by “George” wrote, then echoing the reason why Pence became so unpopular with MAGA followers: “Pence betrayed the Constitution when he allowed a fraudulent election to stand.”
“The absolute failure of Mike Pence’s presidential campaign gives me great joy to watch,” podcast host Joey Mannarino wrote at the start of a lengthy X post. “He can now be sent to the dustbin of history forever. I never liked Pence – not even in 2016.”
Given his association with the Trump administration, Pence’s announcement on Saturday also drew mockery from a number of left-wing figures.
“It turns out the ‘hang Mike Pence’ party isn’t sweet on Mike Pence,” journalist Aaron Rupar wrote on X, citing the infamous phrase chanted by Trump supporters at the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
“Wait, mike pence was running for president?” Molly Jong-Fast, political pundit and former editor-at-large for The Daily Beast, wrote in her own post.
In his own post to X, journalist Bill Scher noted that Pence is only the second former vice president to fail to secure his party’s presidential nomination in the history of the modern primary election system. Dan Quayle, who served as vice president under George H.W. Bush, ran in 2000, but came up short against his former running mate’s son, George W. Bush.
Pence is also the first former vice president in U.S. history to have run against the president they served under in a primary.
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Pence for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.