Conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder is the fourth Republican candidate to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race.
“As I look at the path forward, and after careful consideration and consultation with my campaign team, I have made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign,” Elder said in a statement announcing the suspension of his campaign.
Elder announced that he was joining the GOP primary field in April. Meager donor pools and poor polling results meant he couldn’t meet the Republican National Committee’s criteria to qualify for either of the GOP presidential debates. Three months into his campaign, he couldn’t break 1% in the national polls, according to FiveThirtyEight.
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In light of his campaign’s end, Elder is now urging his would-be primary and general election voters to support former president and now-criminal defendant Donald Trump.
“He has my full support to Make America Great Again, end the epidemic of fatherless homes, reign in spending, and restore law & order,” Elder said of Trump.
He also continued to stand by his beliefs that some of “the biggest issues” affecting the United States are “the crisis of fatherlessness” and “the dangerous lie that America is systemically racist.”
“The breakdown of the family structure and the absence of positive father figures in the lives of many children have far-reaching consequences for our society, including the crime wave we are currently seeing in America today,” Elder said. “Although I am suspending my campaign for president, my commitment to addressing the crisis of fatherlessness, promoting conservative ideals, and supporting the MAGA movement remains unwavering,” he added.
On that front, this so-called “fatherlessness crisis” that Elder has emphasized through the course of his campaign is all about addressing the apparent need to repair family compositions within Black communities, noting that single-parent households weaken communities. He has said that the “root cause” of crime is fatherlessness.
“The number one social problem in America is not systemic racism. It is the epidemic of fatherlessness. Nearly 70 percent of black kids today enter the world without a father in the home married to the mother — up from 24 percent back in 1965,” Elder wrote in a Newsweek op-ed in August.
However, in his time publicly decrying this issue, he has never offered any realistic solutions — or rather, any solutions at all.
In an appearance on the “Higher Learning” podcast with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay, Elder totally sidestepped Lindsay’s question about how to fix “fatherlessness” in America.
“So you’re not accepting it, and you’re asking me what am I doing about something that you don’t accept,” Elder said. “I’m happy to answer the question provided that you acknowledge that there is a problem.”
Other GOP presidential candidates that have dropped from the race are Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former Texas congressman Will Hurd, and businessman Perry Johnson. Johnson also endorsed Trump at the end of his campaign. Hurd opted to endorse former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
During Elder’s presidential run, his background and political views attracted some conservative voters. Elder was raised in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, went to an Ivy League school, then law school. He has been a strong, vocal opponent of Black Lives Matter and believes systemic racism is a myth, which has deterred a Black voter base.
After formally leaving his longtime radio show, “The Larry Elder Show,” in 2022, he established a political action committee to support Republican candidates in federal and local races.
In a previous shot at public office, Elder attempted to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election in 2021. However, his opposition to abortion and COVID-19 mask mandates didn’t land well with the state’s overwhelming liberal population.
