On Monday, some eagle-eye noticed a campaign filing at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for Mike Richard Pence, a.k.a former Vice President Mike Pence, allegedly. The documents purported to be setting up a campaign, “Mike Pence for President,” and appeared to possibly be a filing by the former Vice President to start a 2024 presidential campaign.
Would Pence really be announcing a campaign this early without so much as a single campaign event or interview to mark the occasion? The whole ordeal seemed suspect.
The wheels didn’t stay on this faux campaign long before Pence’s spokesman shot the whole thing down on Twitter as some kind of prank:
Former Vice President Mike Pence set political Twitter abuzz Monday night when a filing with the Federal Election Commission indicated he was running for president in 2024.
Except it wasn’t actually him.
Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for the former Indiana governor, confirmed on Twitter that “Former Vice President Mike Pence did not file to run for President today” after eagle-eyed reporters spotted the online submission by a “Mike Richard Pence.”
The filing also listed a “Mike Pence for President” campaign committee with an address at a post office box in Anderson, Ind., northeast of Indianapolis.
It was not clear who handed in the paperwork, with O’Malley telling one Twitter user: “I think someone pranked you.”
O’Malley referred a request for comment from The Post to the FEC, which said it “cannot comment on specific filings.”
The filing was reported Monday by Britain’s Sky News and the Washington Times.
Pence hinted during an interview with ABC News in November that he was considering a 2024 White House run, and said that he would be discussing the possibility with his family over the holidays.
As noted above, Pence’s spokesman put the issue to bed with a terse statement verifying that it was not former Vice President Mike Pence that made the filing. At least, what he said was that Pence “did not file to run for president today”:
Former Vice President Mike Pence did not file to run for President today. https://t.co/DV7PjhTD6X
— Devin O'Malley (@devin_omalley) December 26, 2022
What does that mean exactly? Did he file it on a different day? Never mind.
The filing came in the name of “Mike Richard Pence” whereas the real Pence’s full name is “Michael Richard Pence.” The rest of the details seemed plausible with the candidate residing in Indiana.
The question is why someone would want to prank Pence or perhaps, more likely, prank the media or prank former President Donald Trump with a Pence presidential campaign filing. It seems pretty clear that Pence is intent on launching a campaign next year as has mentioned the possibility more than once.
As far as is currently known, former Vice President Mike Pence has not announced or filed paperwork for a 2024 presidential run.
