GOP’S Weld ceases challenge of Trump
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, the last Republican challenging President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primary, ended his longshot presidential bid Wednesday.
“I hereby announce that I am suspending my candidacy for President of the United States, effective immediately,” Weld said in a statement.
“I am immensely grateful to all the patriotic women and men who have stood with me during the past eleven months in our effort to bring better government to Washington, D.C..”
Weld was the first Republican to announce that he would challenge Trump in the primary. In February 2019, Weld told New Hampshire voters that he was creating a presidential exploratory committee.
He made his campaign official on April 15, 2019.
“We have a president whose priorities are skewed towards promotion of himself rather than for the good of the country,” Weld said in 2019. “He may have great energy and considerable raw talent but he does not use that in ways that promote democracy, truth, justice and equal opportunity for all. To compound matters, our president is simply too unstable to carry out the duties of the highest executive office in the land.”
Weld, 74, tried to compete in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3, and received 1.3% of the vote and one pledged delegate.
Trump was overwhelmingly announced the winner just 30 minutes after the caucus began.
As a former Massachusetts governor, Weld also tried to compete in New Hampshire, due to the state’s proximity to his home state.
In 2016, Weld ran on the Libertarian party ticket in 2016 with former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. They received about 4.5 million votes, or a little more than 3% of the national popular vote.
Weld was first elected as Massachusetts governor in 1990, and was re-elected by a landslide in 1994. Despite becoming one of the state’s most popular governors in recent history, Weld has not won a political race since.
He ran for Senate in 1996 to unseat Democratic Sen. John Kerry, but lost to the Massachusetts Democrat.