Jim Gilmore Drops Out Of Presidential Race, Sadly Ending His #Gilmentum

Friday afternoon was especially sad, because former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore dropped out of the presidential race, according to Politico. Gilmore never really gained any traction in the national sphere. In fact, he never qualified for any of the undercard GOP debates, so he failed to get much airtime on national television, according to Politico.

Gilmore also served as the head of the Republican National Committee, and, though he wasn't liberal by any means, he was certainly more moderate than many of the Evangelical candidates currently leading in the race (and that's what may have killed Gilmore's campaign). For example, On The Issues shows that Gilmore believes people have a right to abortion in the first eight to 12 weeks of pregnancy, though he still doesn't believe abortion is moral and thinks Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

At the Iowa caucus last week, Gilmore rallied just 12 votes. No, not 12 percent — 12 votes total, according to USA Today. And Twitter had a field day with it. After the caucus, #Gilmentum started trending on Twitter, and people shared sad (but hilarious) photos of the Gilmore supporters at the caucus (most of the photos were empty, that was the joke). But Gilmore did not let the haters get him down. After the caucus, he tweeted with an admirable optimism that you don't often see in someone who just came in last place and is polling at roughly zero percent.

Gilmore's eternal optimism made me kind of like him — even if it was just because he's kind of like a dog running on a treadmill that has a treat tied to the front of it. Poor guy. Writing for The Atlantic, David A. Graham said Gilmore never stood a chance "in the George Pataki sense: a guy who had no real business in race, but was running anyway."

Gilmore managed to get a few more votes in the less Evangelical state of New Hampshire, where his final count was 125, but that still wasn't enough to get him any delegates. Though Gilmore won't leave the race with any sort of recognition for making it close to the White House, at least he can say that he was the longest standing long shot within the race, and that's something, right? Right?! Whatever, because Gilmore will, no doubt, be #StillStanding regardless of this outcome.