| Sam Brownback 2008 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Campaign | 2008 United States presidential election |
| Candidate | Sam Brownback U.S. Senator from Kansas |
| Affiliation | Republican Party |
| Status | Dropped out on October 19, 2007 |
| Announced | December 4, 2006 (Exploratory committee) January 20, 2007 |
| Website | |
| www.brownback.com (Archived on October 11, 2007) | |
The 2008 presidential campaign of Sam Brownback, a U.S. Senator from Kansas, began on December 4, 2006, with the formation of an exploratory committee. Several weeks later on January 20, 2007, Brownback officially announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. Brownback had first been elected to the Senate in a special election in 1996, previously having been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was popular among social conservatives and positioned himself as a compassionate conservative, often using his Catholic faith to justify some of his policy positions. From the start of his announcement, media outlets noted that his candidacy was a long-shot and highly unlikely to succeed, and throughout the campaign, Brownback struggled with both fundraising and rising above single-digits in opinion polls.
On October 19, 2007, after several months of campaigning Brownback announced the end of his campaign, with many speculating that he would instead focus on running for Governor of Kansas in 2010. In November 2007, Brownback endorsed fellow U.S. Senator John McCain, who later went on to win the Republican Party's nomination. Brownback was later elected to the Kansas governorship in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014 before being appointed as an ambassador-at-large by President Donald Trump in 2017.