Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State under President Trump, revealed last week in an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier that he will not be running for the Republican nomination in 2024, the Associated Press reported.
Pompeo later released a video on Twitter explaining that it was not the right time for him or his family “to seek elected office again.” He said that at only 59 years old, there are still “more opportunities” for him to run for president when the “timing might be more fitting.”
Pompeo was one of two former Trump Cabinet members floating a 2024 run last year. The other, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley formally announced her campaign in February.
Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence is also exploring a possible 2024 run for the White House and has in recent weeks stepped up his visits to early primary and caucus states.
While Haley and Pence have both openly criticized their former boss, Pompeo never publicly split with Trump and, as a result, has been spared attacks from the former president on Truth Social. Recently, Pompeo described Trump as a “great boss.”
Just two days before Pompeo pulled the plug on a 2024 run, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott announced that he had launched a presidential exploratory committee for 2024, CBS News reported.
In a video posted on Twitter, Scott vowed to “never back down in defense of the conservative values” that make the country “exceptional.”
He spent the remainder of the week holding events in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Axios reported that the South Carolina Republican has made several moves indicating his plans to run in 2024, including recently hiring former Colorado Republican Senator Cory Gardner and Republican operative Rob Collins to co-chair a super PAC supporting him.
Scott, who easily won reelection in 2022, ended the year with more than $21 million in his campaign war chest, which he can use for a presidential campaign.
