Pence’s early exit from the presidential campaign offers a reminder of Trump’s grip on the GOP

Mike Pence has a resume most White House hopefuls would dream of. A congressman. A governor of a big Midwestern state. A one-time vice president. In normal times, someone with such credentials would be well-positioned to win their party’s presidential nomination. But these are not normal times and Pence’s decision to end his campaign more than two months before the first contest in the Republican primary underscores the extent to which the party has been subsumed by former President Donald Trump and his lies about the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden