“After much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my presidential campaign effective today,” Pence told participants at the Republican Jewish Coalition conference in Las Vegas on Saturday.

He also stated that he realized that this was not his time, but at the same time he stressed that he would continue to work for traditional preservation, to full applause from the audience.

Pence was Vice President under Donald Trump, and registered last June to participate in the race to become the Republican nominee in next year’s presidential elections. However, he has not gained much favor in opinion polls, with Trump still clearly ahead of his Republican rivals.

Before becoming vice president, Pence was Indiana’s governor and congressional representative for several years. He is seen as distinctly conservative, at least on matters of value, and was loyal to his boss until the final stretch of Trump’s term as president.

But since the 2020 election defeat, Pence has tried to distance himself from the former president. He said that Trump’s incitement of his supporters who attacked Congress in January 2021 puts him and his family in danger.

However, he continued to defend many of Trump’s policies, but tried to present himself as a more predictable and consensus-oriented alternative. In addition, he attempted to appeal directly to evangelical Christians and visited a number of large churches throughout the United States.