Ashcroft Won’t Run for President in 2000

After spending more than a year building toward a potential bid for the White House in 2000, Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) took himself out of the running. Speaking in Springfield, Mo., the former governor and junior senator from the state said he would concentrate on winning a second Senate term, a contest in which he faces a fierce challenge from popular Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan. Ashcroft, 56, had been considered a leading conservative contender, and he was the early choice of several social conservative leaders.