McCotter Leaves Republican Presidential Race, Backs Romney

Politics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 22, 2011   |   3:47PM   |   Washington, DC

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, a pro-life Republican, barely registered in the GOP presidential race. He almost never achieved 1 percent in the polls and did not participate in any of the Republican presidential debates.

Today, he’s dropping out of the contest and endorsing Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who has seen his standing in the polls surge in the wake of two debates with rival Rick Perry, the pro-life Texas governor.

McCotter joined a crowded field, which includes several pro-life advocates who have significantly more name recognition and money and a much better shot at getting the nomination. However, the congressman spent time in early states and came away feeling positive about his potential presidential bid. Former Iowa House Speaker Chris Rants, who endorsed Romney in 2008, became his top spokesman in Iowa.

He told the Detroit News his inability to get int he debates hampered his bid.

“If they keep you out of the debates, you are out of the conversation and you can’t run,” McCotter said. “It was sort of death by media.”

The congressman had told Politico he entered the race because he saw little excitement from Republicans about the current field and said he would run a campaign designed to “challenge of globalization, the war for freedom against terrorists, the rise of Communist China and whether moral relativism erodes a nation built on self-evident truth.”

McCotter takes a pro-life position on abortion and, according to the National Right to Life Committee, has a 100% pro-life voting record — both in this current session of Congress and in 41 votes cast throughout the course of his congressional career. The votes cover both abortion as well as bioethics issues like embryonic stem cell research.

In July, he signed the pro-life pledge sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List saying he is committed to opposing abortion and abortion funding.

As LifeNews.com reported, the Susan B. Anthony List unveiled the pledge recently and indicated Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul signed it. The pledge has the candidates promising to support only judicial nominees who won’t interpret the Constitution in a way that supports Roe v. Wade, select pro-life Cabinet members on positions affecting abortion policy, supporting legislation to stop taxpayer funding of abortions and Planned Parenthood, and to support a fetal pain bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

McCotter explained the reason for signing the pledge stating, “The culture of death, as enshrined by Roe v. Wade, is a present danger to the weakest in our society. Unless Roe is overturned, the culture of death will continue to fester and endanger Americans.  To protect future generations of Americans, we must work in our families and our communities to uphold the sanctity of human life.”

The congressman is a rock and roll fanatic and is a graduate of Detroit’s Catholic Central High School and he went on to receive his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Detroit. At just 27, he was elected to the Wayne County Commission in 1992 and he eventually joined the state Senate in 1998.

“Our liberty is from God not the government; our sovereignty rests in our souls not the soil; our security is through strength not surrender; our prosperity is from the private sector not the public sector; and our truths are self-evident, not relative,’ he has said, according to the American Spectator.