Amid the current field, it’s been hard to determine the reasoning behind former Vice President Mike Pence’s presidential run.
Yes, he’s the heir apparent to the Trump-Pence administration, as he’s prone to call it when he wants to take credit for his boss’ policies, but he’s no longer in line with much of the Republican base. On the other hand, in what universe did Pence believe he would somehow part the Red Sea of MAGA-land and win over Trump’s die-hard supporters?
According to recent reports, the Pence campaign is buried in debt and unable to generate interest at campaign events in Iowa, or elsewhere:
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s 2024 campaign faces a potentially existential cash squeeze, with debt already piling up.
The campaign told NBC News it will report having raised $3.3 million in the third quarter, with $1.2 million cash on hand and $620,000 in debt, when its campaign finance filing is due to be made public Sunday. Pence himself chipped in $150,000 from his personal funds, the campaign said.
Pence’s numbers reveal a campaign under serious strain, operating on completely different financial terrain from that of his rivals, and they raise questions about his ability to continue to compete in the GOP primaries. Racking up debt, in particular, has long been a sign of presidential campaigns in trouble — and potentially on the verge of ending.
The Pence campaign is not “on the verge of ending,” it’s over and one has to question whether it ever really started. Trump aside, when standing next to Ron DeSantis, there was little appetite for Pence’s brand of conventional Republicanism, experience notwithstanding. Pence is more of the “get-along-go-along” Washington crowd, a strain of GOP politics that is not finding much safe haven among the grassroots as of late.
As Politico notes, Pence’s campaign debt is going to require debt-retirement fundraisers when he does pull the plug:
“That debt number is going to be impossible to pay back,” a longtime Pence ally told me. “When he drops out he’s going to have to do debt-retirement fundraisers.” In the immediate hours after the report came out, few around him expected him to quit before Iowa; far less clear is where he could compete after.
Furthermore, with events drawing upwards of 13 people, there simply is no gas left in the tank:
Nearly six months into his presidential campaign, and fewer than 90 days until the Iowa caucuses, Pence is not seeing massive crowds like his former running mate Donald Trump, or his fellow Midwesterner Vivek Ramaswamy, or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or even his longtime frenemy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Thirty folks at Penn Drug store in Sidney on a recent Friday morning; another 30 at the Olive Branch Restaurant in Greenfield that afternoon; 60 at a senior center in Glenwood the next day.
It’s difficult to find a political prognosticator who is not on his payroll who gives Pence any plausible shot at winning the nomination, a reality he acknowledged on the trail earlier this month. “The media has already decided how all this is going to end,” he told just 13 people at a Pizza Ranch in Red Oak.
Pence, playing the victim, is implying that somehow the media is out to get him. Maybe that’s true, to an extent, but he’s not a threat to the nomination and never was. If Pence wants to place blame, he can start with Republican primary voters who seem less than enthused about giving him a shot in 2024.
In another universe, if Trump had remained President in 2020, Pence would’ve been in a great position to start at the top of the field in 2024. Having served faithfully by Trump’s side, he would’ve earned his spot.
As it stands now with Pence frequently disavowing his former boss while trying to take credit for his policies, it’s a bad look that nobody is buying.
Like Chris Christie and a few others, Pence is wasting time and resources better devoted to serious candidates and causes. It’s time to end the charade, whittle down the field, and bring this dog and pony show to a close.
