Former Sen. Jim Webb, who dropped out of the Democratic presidential race last year, announced Thursday that he would not make an independent bid for the White House.
Craig Crawford, Webb’s spokesman, tells CNN that the senator “will not pursue an independent campaign” despite his feeling that the country needs “a vigorous foreign policy debate in the presidential campaign.”
“We have not had a clear statement of national security policy since the end of the Cold War,” Webb said Thursday at a speech before the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Ft. Worth. “And I see no one running for president today who has a firm understanding of the elements necessary to build a national strategy.”
Webb ended his equally long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination in October, telling reporters that he would consider pursing an independent run.
The former senator, whose distaste for campaigning was well known, asked his close advisers — including his wife, Hong Le Webb — to investigate whether he could get on enough ballots as an independent to win 270 electoral votes.
Crawford said in November that Webb’s feasibility study would be the deciding factor in whether he mounted an independent run.
