While some Republicans, like South Carolina’s Tim Scott, seem to be moving forward in the 2024 presidential campaign, others in the race have decided that maybe this cycle is not their year to get dirty in the primary mud.
First, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Friday that he would be passing on the 2024 presidential race saying the timing wasn’t right for his family:
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday he is not running for president in 2024.
“The time is not right for me and my family,” Pompeo said in a statement.
Pompeo, 59, said he and his wife Susan made the decision “after much consideration and prayer.”
Pompeo served under former President Donald Trump as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2017 to 2018 and as secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. He was considered a potential Republican candidate for president as the 2024 election shapes up.
No offense to Pompeo, a man who served admirably under former President Trump, but he lacked any solid base within the Republican Party. Pompeo’s credibility and popularity came mostly from his association with Trump, but that lane is firmly occupied by Trump himself.
While Pompeo seemed to be very serious about a campaign, it has been clear for a while that he lacks the means and notoriety to coalesce broad support for a true run at the nomination.
The other big name to take his name off the table is Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
This move might be more surprising to some since it seemed to clear that during his rampant campaigning in 2022 for the midterms, Youngkin was traveling the country to build up some political capital in other states with the hope that he could garner future support for a presidential run.
To that end, Youngkin has formally taken his name out of the ring as well:
Virginia’s governor is putting the presidential hoopla on ice.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican whose surprising election in a blue-trending state set off instant talk of a presidential run, has tapped the brakes on 2024, telling advisers and donors that his sole focus is on Virginia’s legislative elections in the fall.
Mr. Youngkin hopes to flip the state legislature to a Republican majority. That could earn him a closer look from rank-and-file Republicans across the country, who so far have been indifferent to the presidential chatter surrounding him in the news media, and among heavyweight donors he would need to keep pace alongside more prominent candidates. He has yet to crack 1 percent in polls about the potential Republican field.
Youngkin’s decision is probably wise as he has work to finish in the Commonwealth of Virginia and a big state Senate election happening this year.
As for the possibility that Youngkin could still enter the 2024 primary race after the Virginia Senate elections in November, that scenario seems far-fetched and somewhat impossible. By that time, most of the big money will be committed to one candidate or another and key campaign staff will have already been gobbled up by other candidates.
Youngkin still has great things to do in Virginia and passing on a presidential run in 2024 certainly does not preclude him from future political ambitions.
His statewide win in 2021 shocked the political world and turned a Biden state upside down based on parental rights and the madness happening in the education system. It’s a message that he could carry into a U.S. Senate campaign a few years down the road having already won a difficult statewide race.
Republicans who have formally announced their intention to seek the 2024 Republican nomination include Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, who served as a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in the Trump administration, Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman, and entrepreneur.
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