Sharron Angle dropped out of a special election to fill an open congressional seat in Nevada Wednesday.
The Tea Party-backed Republican who also lost her bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Harry Reid in November said her decision was based upon court rulings allowing the state Republican party — and not the voters — to choose the nominee for the 2nd congressional district seat.
“Current outcomes concerning the special election have made this election in Nevada an illegitimate process that disenfranchises the electorate,” she said. “Clearly, no solution that the Supreme Court can make will correct the injury to free and open elections caused by ambiguous laws and subsequent lawsuits.”
She was running for former Republican Rep. Dean Heller’s seat. Heller was appointed the Senate after Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign’s resignation.
A state court had ruled that the state parties would pick the nominees for the election instead of holding a primary for voters to do so. That decision has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.
If upheld, it was widely believed that Angle would not have had the establishment support to be chosen.
When she announced her candidacy in March, Angle said her “effort to bring the people’s voice back into government didn’t end in 2010. Now, more than ever, we need elected officials who will pledge to work against unconstitutional legislation, higher taxes, increased regulation, and deficit spending that continues to bankrupt our economy and consumer confidence.”
Angle said in the statement that she’s not ruling out future runs for political office.