The first person to back out of the 2008 Presidential Election is Wisconsin's former Governor, Tommy Thompson. He said the main reason was because he did not do as well as he had hoped in Saturday's early straw poll in Iowa. In a written statement, Thompson thanked the people of Iowa who he complimented on being welcoming, as well as his volunteers and contributors from all over the country. The former Secretary of Health and human services had hoped to come in second but got sixth out of nine in the early straw poll. Though he had finished way under his expectations, Thompson admits that he lost and that he won't look back as he did not regret running.
Records from the Federal Election Commission show that he raised just under $900,000 for his campaign, making his budget ninth among his competitors. Now that he is out of the running for Presidency, Thompson will return to working in a ‘private sector', unwilling to abandon his goal of improving health care and welfare for Americans. December 2006 saw Thompson set up a presidential trial committee before he filed to run the following January. In April, Thompson left his law firm where he was senior partner in hopes of getting in good with Republicans who are not as unconventional as the other GOP candidates. He dubs himself as being the “Reliable conservative… one individual [people] can count on.” Since his decision to leave the election, there are now eight Republican candidates running.
> View the online archive of the latest 2008 presidential polls.
