WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Friday afternoon he would not be running for president this year, putting an end to a potential presidential bid that failed to pick up momentum.
In a press release, the three-term Kansas congressman from Wichita said he didn’t believe the moment was right to seek elected office.
“It is simplest, and most accurate, to say that this decision is personal,” Pompeo wrote. “The time is not right for me and my family.”
Pompeo had been laying the groundwork for a potential presidential bid for two years. Since stepping down at the end of the Trump administration, he has toured the country, endorsing and promoting candidates through his political action committee, called Champion American Values.
In the first stages of the Republican primary, attention has largely been consumed by two front-runners – former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. In early polling, Pompeo has often failed to pick up more than 3% of voters and more often was hovering around 1%.
It appeared there was little he could do to build support – even a nationwide book tour and a trip to visit Ukraine seemed to do little to draw attention.
Republicans in Washington were skeptical of what he had to offer in the campaign, saying he’d have to compete with other former Trump administration officials, like former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence.
But some Kansas Republicans were disappointed in his decision not to run.
“It’s just a loss for the country and a loss for the field,” said David Kensinger, a Republican consultant and top aide to former Gov. Sam Brownback. “He was the most Reaganesque of the candidates in the field. But there’s still other great things he can do to serve the country and he’s always someone who has answered the bell.”
Pompeo appeared focused on his foreign policy experience and largely avoided laying out a detailed domestic vision. Instead the potential candidate often complained about “wokeness,” critical race theory and other culture war issues.
Kensinger said Pompeo would have added a different perspective, because he takes a tougher approach to foreign policy in a Republican field led by candidates who have advocated for more isolation.
But Republican consultants said it would be difficult to attract support in a presidential primary running on foreign policy when Republican voters are mostly focused on domestic issues like education, immigration, border security and the economy.
Pompeo is also relatively untested. He has not won an election larger than his Wichita congressional district. Pompeo’s decision to back off from the presidential campaign is reminiscent of 2020, when Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., heavily recruited him to run for an open U.S. Senate seat in Kansas.
“At each stage of my public service — as a soldier, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and then as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and as your Secretary of State — I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to advance America in a way that fit the time and the moment,” Pompeo said.
A graduate of West Point and Wichita businessman, he was elected to Congress as part of the tea party wave in 2010.
Pompeo was tapped by Trump to serve as director of the CIA and then as secretary of state, despite actively campaigning for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in the 2016 presidential race. He successfully navigated four years in an administration known for backstabbing, predominantly through his loyalty to Trump.
During Pompeo’s tenure in the Trump administration, he attracted the attention of ethics watchdogs, who accused him of laying the groundwork for his political ambitions by using the office of secretary of state to curry favor with donors.
State Department employees were asked to help Pompeo prepare for political events in his home state of Kansas, where he traveled on government aircraft, leading to at least one whistleblower complaint in 2019, McClatchy and the Kansas City Star reported at the time. The State Department inspector general’s office ultimately found that Pompeo and his wife repeatedly misused department staff and resources for personal business, citing over 100 instances of misconduct.
In January, Pompeo released “Never Give an Inch,” the kind of book – part memoir, part manifesto – that often precedes a presidential campaign. In it, he presents himself as a swaggering tough guy, one who was willing to stand up to dictators and tried to surround himself with people he calls “pipehitters,” a term used by the military to talk about special operation units.
He is stepping aside the same week that Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., joined the race and just before the first cattle call in Iowa.
Pompeo, who has built a reputation for not backing down from a fight, included a line in his news release for anyone happy he had decided against running.
“To those of you that this thrills, know that I’m 59 years old,” Pompeo wrote. “There remain many more opportunities for which the timing might be more fitting as presidential leadership becomes even more necessary.”
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(The Kansas City Star’s Jonathan Shorman and McClatchy’s Michael Wilner contributed to this report.)
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