Former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Lincoln Chafee, D-R.I., announced on Friday he was ending his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Earlier this week, former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., ended his campaign for the Democratic nomination. On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden said he was not entering the race, leaving former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Gov. Martin O’Malley, D-Md., in the field.
Chafee tried to stand out by noting his opposition to military action in Iraq but he failed to gain any traction. Last week, Chafee took part in the Democratic debate and his performance drew poor reviews across the board. As he bowed out of the race, Chafee returned to his opposition to military action in Iraq.
“I have been campaigning on a platform of ‘Prosperity Through Peace.’ But after much thought I have decided to end my campaign for president today. I would like to take this opportunity one last time to advocate for a chance to be given to peace,” Chafee said. “When I was a senator, a general from the Pentagon testified before the Foreign Relations Committee on global military powers. I asked him who was second to the U.S. in military might? He thought for a bit and said, ‘probably the U.K.’ Yes that was a few years ago but the point remains true: no real rival to the United States exists when it comes to total weaponry and deployment potential.
“We are sinking ever deeper and deeper into an endless morass in the Middle East and North Africa,” Chafee added. “People keep dying, and peace seems further and further away. It’s evident that all this military power isn’t working for us right now.”
Chafee had shown no hesitation in throwing jabs at Clinton’s support for military intervention in Iraq but turned his fire toward the GOP on Friday.
“From what I’ve heard, none of the Republicans running for president want to understand anything about the Middle East and North Africa,” Chafee insisted. “Instead they prefer to espouse more bellicosity, more saber rattling and more blind macho posturing.
“The United States of America is so strong militarily, economically and culturally that we can take chances for peace,” Chafee added. “In fact, as a strong mature world leader, we must take chances for peace. If we have courage, if we take risks, we can have ‘Prosperity through Peace,’ not just in the United States, but all over the world. Do we want to be remembered as a bomber of weddings and hospitals? Or do we want to be remembered as peacemakers, as pioneers of a more harmonious world?
“A wise man, President Eisenhower counseled us that ‘only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry’ could ensure the meshing of both security and liberty,” Chafee concluded. “It is up to you as women, as citizens, and as humans to demand from your leaders an end to the endless wars and the beginning of a new era for the United States and humanity.”
The son of veteran Rhode Island Republican John Chafee who served six years as governor of the Ocean State during the 1960s before sitting in the Nixon Cabinet as secretary of the Navy and almost a quarter century in the U.S. Senate, Lincoln Chafee, then the mayor of Warwick, was named to the Senate after his father’s death in 1999. Chafee proved one of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate, breaking with his party on abortion and foreign policy. In the 2004 election cycle, Chafee even considered taking on President George W. Bush in the primaries.
In 2006, Chafee faced a conservative primary challenge from Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey. Chafee held on, winning by an unimpressive 53 percent to 47 percent margin, thanks in part to voters outside the Republican ranks. Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse defeated Chafee in the 2006 general election.
Chafee left the GOP in 2007 to become an independent and threw his support behind Barack Obama in February 2008. Obama repaid that support in 2010 when Chafee, still an independent, ran for governor in Rhode Island. While Obama did not back Chafee, he did not endorse the Democrat in the race, either.
He drifted left as governor, opposing school choice and charter schools and going out of his way to separate church and state, even referring to the Rhode Island State House's Christmas tree as a holiday tree. With his popularity dropping, Chafee joined the Democrats in 2013 but scuttled his efforts to run for a second term.
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