Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty announced today that he is ending his campaign for the Republican nomination for president.
Pawlenty had been on 2008 GOP nominee John McCain’s short list to be his running mate but was ultimately passed over in favor of then-Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Pawlenty used the favorable attention that he had received from that experience to begin preparing a campaign of his own for president almost immediately after McCain lost the 2008 race to Barack Obama.
Pawlenty had amassed a record as a solid conservative as governor of Minnesota, and he was widely expected to be a top-tier candidate in the 2012 race. This expectation widened when Mississippi governor Haley Barbour and Indiana governor Mitch Daniels both decided not to enter the race. However, as a result of Pawlenty’s lackluster campaign and subdued personal style, conservatives who were wary of frontrunner Mitt Romney’s inconsistent record and who were looking for a conservative alternative who could passionately voice and fight for conservative principles declined to embrace Pawlenty’s candidacy.
Pawlenty’s path to victory became much more difficult when fellow Minnesotan Michele Bachmann entered the race. Although Bachmann had never been elected to any office higher than the House of Representatives, in that office she gained national attention as a strong and principled conservative voice. This battle of the Minnesotans came to a head when Pawlenty and Bachmann exchanged barbs at a nationally televised debate a few days ago. Then, yesterday, Bachmann won the Ames, Iowa Straw Poll, while Pawlenty came in a distant third to Ron Paul. Bachmann had succeeded in pushing Pawlenty out of the race.
As Tim Pawlenty exits the race for president, Texas governor Rick Perry entered it yesterday. Perry is a passionate and principled conservative with years of experience as a chief executive as the longest-serving governor in Texas history and the longest-serving governor currently serving in America today. He is also the Chairman of the Republican Governors Association. It will be interesting to see whether those Republicans who have embraced Michele Bachmann will gravitate to Perry as an equally passionate conservative with better credentials and qualifications to take on Barack Obama next year.
