Jim Webb announced on Tuesday that he is dropping out of the Democratic presidential race in favor of a potential independent presidential run.
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Webb could run as an independent and was asked by CNN’s Dan Merica how he could appeal to the electorate independently after he failed to make headway in the polls as a Democrat.
Fox News reported that Webb plans to announce the termination of his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday afternoon during a press conference at the National Press Club.
Only one person in Iowa has donated to Jim Webb’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, and the donor and candidate share the same frustrations about party extremism. He complained at the Democratic debate last week that he was not given sufficient time to discuss all of his views.
A decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, Webb has trailed the top Democratic rivals in the polls and in fundraising. Mallett has given Webb’s campaign $3,600, according to campaign finance records through September 30. His conservative streak offers Democrats their best chance to lure the so-called “Reagan Democrats”, mostly middle-class and blue-collar white males, back to the Democratic Party that they used to dominate. “Because of the paralysis in our two parties, there is a time when conceivably an independent candidacy actually could win”. A Saturday Night Live skit that aired days after the debate lampooned Webb’s frequent complaints to Cooper that he was not being given as much time to speak as other candidates – which ironically only further cut into the time he was given.
Although a growing number of Americans call themselves independent, the vast majority lean either to the Democrat or the Republican side.
His campaign, however, never really got off the ground and was seen by even a few close Webb aides as more of a vanity play than an actual presidential bid. Another source told ABC News that Webb has told the Democratic Party that he will not participate in any more Democratic debates.
“If we ran an independent race that worked and got traction”, he said.
He added, “I feel confident that Jim would say that same thing”. Bernie Sanders: Americans are exhausted of politics as usual, and it will take a populist groundswell to truly shake things up.
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“The first was the invasion of Iraq, which destabilized ethnic elements in Iraq and empowered Iran”, said Webb, who has always been an opponent of the US invasion in 2003.
