Former Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton has dropped out of the 2024 Presidential race. The Republican former naval officer and businessman was the first Republican to announce his candidacy in November 2022, with a "Pay it Forward" campaign slogan aimed at balanced budgets, better U.S. education systems, and support for American institutions. Stapleton visited Ukraine earlier this year, expressing American support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, and called for reduced American rhetoric against the United States' large trading partners, China and Mexico. Stapleton promised he would submit an Immigration and Border Security bill to Congress in his first 100 days as President and create military and trade agreements facilitating 200 years of peaceful trade and prosperity between China and the United States. "China is our economic rival, not our enemy," said Stapleton. Corey Stapleton is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who served as Montana Secretary of State from 2017 to 2021, certifying the 2020 Presidential election. This year he made several campaign visits to New Hampshire and Iowa, attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), and recently spoke at The American Democracy Summit in Los Angeles and World Affairs council in New Hampshire. "I wasn't able to break through," Stapleton said. | 
