LAS VEGAS - Former US vice-president Mike Pence ended his cash-strapped presidential campaign on Saturday, after struggling for months to convince Republican voters that he was the best alternative to Donald Trump, the man he once served with unswerving loyalty.

Mr Pence’s surprise announcement at the Republican Jewish Coalition donor conference in Las Vegas made him the first big-name candidate to drop out. Trump is the runaway front runner in the race.

“Travelling over the country over the past six months, I came here to say it’s become clear to me: This is not my time. So, after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today,” Mr Pence, 64, told the audience to gasps and, later, prolonged claps and cheers of support.

He stopped short of endorsing anyone in his speech, but seemed to swipe at his former boss.

“I urge all my fellow Republicans here, give our country a Republican standard bearer that will, as Lincoln said, appeal to the better angels of our nature,” Mr Pence said, adding that it should also be someone who leads the country with “civility”.

A source close to Mr Pence laughed when asked whether the former vice-president would endorse Trump.

At a rally later on Saturday, Trump said Mr Pence should endorse him because he had a “great, successful presidency... I chose him, made him vice-president”. But, Trump added, “people in politics can be very disloyal”.

A spokesperson for Mr Pence did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his endorsement plans.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Trump did not mention Mr Pence in their speeches at the donor conference. Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, praised Mr Pence as a fighter for America and Israel.

More candidates might soon follow Mr Pence in dropping out, consolidating the wide field of contenders. With more than a half-dozen candidates, donors seeking alternatives to Trump have been reticent to open their pocketbooks.

Trump’s lead is so large that it may not matter, however, and contenders also might decide to stay in for longer. No clear-cut alternative has emerged since the DeSantis campaign has languished after a disappointing start.

A doomed campaign

Mr Pence, 64, publicly broke with Trump, lambasting the former president for his role in the Jan 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol. Mr Pence gambled that Republican primary voters would reward him for following the US Constitution, rather than Trump’s instructions, to overturn the 2020 election results when as vice-president, he held the ceremonial role of president of the Senate.

But Trump’s base of core supporters never forgave Mr Pence for overseeing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election.

Trump has built one of the biggest primary leads in US electoral history, according to opinion polls. They show that most Republican voters have embraced, or do not care about, Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him and his efforts to overturn the result.

Mr Pence announced his White House bid in June but has failed to attract enough primary voters and donors to sustain a candidacy that has languished in the low single digits in polls.

A stolid campaigner short on charisma, he was low on cash by October. He failed to catch fire in the first Republican nominating state of Iowa despite spending time and resources there.

His third-quarter fund-raising totals on Oct 15 showed that his campaign was US$620,000 (S$850,000) in debt, with only US$1.2 million cash on hand. That was far less than several better-performing Republican rivals and insufficient for a White House race.

In several past elections, former vice-presidents who have competed to become the White House nominee have succeeded, including Republican George H.W. Bush in 1988 and Democrat Al Gore in 2000. Mr Biden himself was vice-president to former president Barack Obama.

But Mr Pence could not overcome the political juggernaut of Trump, along with rivals who appealed more to primary voters and donors, including Ms Haley and Mr DeSantis.

Mr Pence ran as a traditional social and fiscal conservative, and a foreign policy hawk, calling for increased military aid to Ukraine and cuts in welfare spending. His brand of Republicanism has been eclipsed in the Trump era by full-throated populism and “America First” isolationism. REUTERS