Pence’s early exit from the presidential campaign offers a reminder of Trump’s grip on the GOP

By JILL COLVIN and MICHELLE L. PRICE
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mike Pence has a resume most White House hopefuls would dream of. He was a vice president, governor and congressman. Normally, someone with such credentials would be well positioned to win their party’s presidential nomination. But not today. Pence’s decision to end his campaign more than two months before the first contest in the Republican primary underscores the extent to which the party has been subsumed by former President Donald Trump and his lies about the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Pence tried to thread what often seemed like an impossibly fine needle. He ran on the record of what he fondly referred to as the Trump-Pence administration while also criticizing his former boss.