Michele Bachmann ends campaign, says she’ll fight for issues
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter apallasch@suntimes.com January 4, 2012 10:19AM
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. announces that she will end her campaign for president, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
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Updated: January 4, 2012 5:56PM
DES MOINES — Conservative firebrand Michelle Bachmann dropped her bid for president Wednesday morning following her sixth-place, 5-percent showing in the Iowa Caucuses.
“Last night the people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice and so I have decided to stand aside,” the Minnesota congresswoman told supporters as her husband, family and friends stood at her side. “While I will not be continuing in this race, my faith in the Lord God almighty, this country, and our republic is unshakable.”
Bachmann said she had “no regrets” about her campaign and she thanked Iowans for giving her a first-place finish in the Ames Straw poll this summer.
“While congressman by title, a politician I never have been nor will I ever hope to be because I am not motivated by a quest for vain glory or the promise of political power,” Bachmann said.
Her main goal in running for president has been to stop the Obama Administration’s health care plan, or as she called it, “President Obama’s program of socialized medicine” because she believed it “endangered the very survival of the United States of America.” Shecalled it “the largest expansion of entitlement spending in our country’s history. Its repeal is more than just a cliché for me.”
Bachmann said she will return to Congress to be the same outspoken voice for conservative family values she always has been.
“I’ll continue to fight for you,” Bachmann said. “I will fight to protect life from conception till natural death, I will fight for traditional marriage. I will fight for our country’s borders.”
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