Tommy Thompson drops out of the Presidential Race

The Republican Presidential hopeful Tommy Thompson kept his promise to drop his presidential bid.

Tommy Thompson drops out of the Presidential Race Late Sunday the GOP presidential candidate Tommy Thompson announced that he is pulling out of the presidential race. He is following on his promise made before the Iowa Straw Poll, namely, that he would abandon his presidential ambitions if he would not rank second or first at the poll.

After the Ames Straw Poll results were announced, Tommy Thompson finished 6th with only 7.1% of the votes. He was surpassed by Ron Paul who took 9.1%. Thompson made the following statement on Sunday:

"I felt my record as governor of Wisconsin and Secretary of Health and Human Services gave me the experience I needed to serve as president. But I respect the decision of the voters. I am leaving the campaign trail today, but I will not leave the challenges of improving health care and welfare in America."

He also said in a statement that he has no regrets for running the campaign and that he simply needs to accept that he lost. The lack of support for Thompson was clear after his sixth place finish at the Iowa poll - he campaigned at all 99 counties of the state, prior to the vote on Saturday.

Tommy Thompson, who served in the Bush Cabinet as the secretary of Health and Human Services, ranked ninth among the rest of the GOP candidates in fundraising - only $890,000 as of the end of July. He will most likely return to the private sector after his unsuccessful presidential bid - he was a senior partner at Akin Gump, a Washington, D.C law firm, when he announced his candidacy. He was also a senior advisor at the consulting firm Deloitte and is the chairman of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

An interesting fact about Tommy Thompson - he served for two years on the board of directors of Applied Digital Solutions, makers of the controversial VeriChips, a device to be injected into human flesh for identification purposes and for use as a payment device.

The sportsbooks also placed Tommy Thompson among the second-tier candidates. The online bookmaker Bodog Sports listed Thompson's odds on becoming the Republican Candidate for the 2008 US Presidential Election at 20/1, but he did not manage to enter the betting props on being chosen as the next President of the USA, giving him the field bet of 50/1.

Published on 08/12/2007