"Former Cranston mayor Laffey drops out of Republican presidential race, leaves GOP" Ed Fitzpatrick, Boston Globe Friday, October 6th, 2023
Discover more from Steve Laffey's Substack--on the campaign trail
"Former Cranston mayor Laffey drops out of Republican presidential race, leaves GOP" Ed Fitzpatrick, Boston Globe Friday, October 6th, 2023
"In announcing that he is leaving the GOP after 40 years, Steve Laffey says, “The Republican Party has become a laughingstock”"
“Former Cranston mayor Laffey drops out of Republican presidential race, leaves GOP”
Highlights from the article.
“The Republican Party has become a laughingstock,” Laffey said in a statement. “From a celebrity-driven race for the presidency, to disturbing events in the House of Representatives, it has become painfully apparent that the Republican Party no longer exists. What used to be a Grand Old Party is now simply a placard for anyone to say anything, no matter how hurtful, and no matter how false.”
While most Republican presidential candidates have been reluctant to criticize Trump, Laffey has blasted him.
“Donald Trump is certainly the significant factor in this rapid movement towards authoritarianism and away from the core principles of freedom and economic growth,” Laffey said Friday. “As the first candidate to challenge the dominance of Trump’s influence, I believed that there was a yearning in the Republican heart for a candidate free from his shadow. However, the past eight months have proven me wrong.”
In May, Laffey criticized Trump for mocking writer E. Jean Carroll at a CNN town hall at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire a day after she won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation award against Trump. He noted that other candidates said nothing.
“From everyone else, there was only silence. Has it not been proven countless times in history that silence is what brings a nation to its knees?” he wrote. “As an evangelical Christian, the fact that this moment did not galvanize all Christians against Trump is a failure so profound that it is unforgivable.”
Laffey ran for US Senate in a primary against then-Republican incumbent Lincoln D. Chafee in 2006, but lost and wrote a book about the experience titled “Primary Mistake, How the Washington Republican Establishment Lost Everything in 2006.″
On Friday, Laffey said his 2007 book was an effort to restore the Republican Party’s direction. “My next book may be aptly named ‘Secondary Mistake, I Came, I Saw, I Wept,’ as it’s become abundantly clear that the chasm within the party and our political system may be beyond mending,” he said.
Laffey said he has been faithful to the Republican Party since he was a teenager.
“From establishing a conservative newspaper at a liberal college, to running for public office as a Republican in Rhode Island — a notoriously Democratic state — to even remaining a Republican after I was attacked by the national Republican Party after running for the US Senate, to writing a book concerning the rejuvenation of the Republican Party, I had always felt that the Republican Party’s principles reflected my own,” he wrote.
But, he said, “What I’ve witnessed since 2015 has made it clear that our political sphere has deviated far from its ideals.”
Laffey said he hopes someone else will “pick up the torch and guide our great nation back to its true essence.” But, he said, “For now, it’s time for me to step aside.”
Laffey said he does not support any of the remaining presidential candidates.
He concluded his statement with a quote from the singer/songwriter Jackson Browne: “It’s a good question to be asking right now: What’ll you put up with, what’ll you allow?”
“First to ABC: Steve Laffey leaves the 2024 race, reflects on longshot campaign”
"You haven't heard the last from me," Laffey told ABC News.
And it continues
"Former Cranston mayor Laffey drops out of Republican presidential race, leaves GOP" Ed Fitzpatrick, Boston Globe Friday, October 6th, 2023
You didn't fail and you shouldn't feel as though you did. The only failure is giving up, which you have not done. You made the correct choice since you knew that this particular effort wasn't shaping up the way you'd hoped. You did not want to continue to take money from supporters when you knew at this point you'd not be able to deliver what was expected. There's no failure in that. On the contrary, it is an honorable decision. Failure is what many politicians have done for the citizenry of these great United States. Failure is our stratospheric debt. Failure is the destruction of the middle class. Failure is our border non-policy. Failure was the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Failure is the rising crime of our major cities. I could go on. You reached plenty of people; maybe you've laid the groundwork to give you a consistent platform to share your visions, e.g., put yourself on the radar of popular media like Newsmax. One thing's for sure - you didn't fail.
For a big portion of your life, you've gone against tremendous odds, Steve. You're a winner because you've come out on top so many times that you've been faced with those odds.
It seems as if American politics is a ruthless bloodsport that requires approximately, a billion dollars to get out ahead of the pack. I think that it's safe to say, the D.C. Swamp is extremely deep, large and chock full of creatures who have no intention of giving up their power over the masses. The Mainstream Media is no different.
You're still young enough and I believe you have plenty of gas in the tank.... and have the intellect to accomplish great things even in that lousy environment.
Your message is real and it's solid and there's nothing phony about any part of your life.
You need the backing of a billionaire or two who expect nothing back except the kind of leadership and governance that you're already proven to possess!