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Mike Pence: The Next President of the United States?

Polls of late indicate that Mike Pence hasn’t gotten much traction, although it remains early and the former vice president is not yet formally running. 

Mike Pence. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Governor Mike Pence speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Arizona.

What kind of presidential candidate will Mike Pence be?: The former vice president appears to be running for president in 2024. A new report looks at his very un-Trump-like campaign strategy. 

Here Comes Mike Pence

Former Vice President Mike Pence is likely running for president, in a run that will make history in several ways – most of them connected to Donald Trump

It will be a rare case of a former vice president running against the president he formerly served, and also almost certainly the first candidate who will be running against someone against whom he had recently testified.

And Pence will also be running against the man who, quite literally, left him for dead on January 6

How Will Be Run? 

The New York Times reported this week on Pence’s strategy, as he prepares to launch a presidential bid. 

Pence, per the Times, plans to run as a “classical conservative,” more influenced by Ronald Reagan than by Trump, with a goal to “ return the Republican Party to its pre-Trump roots.” 

The plan, in what the newspaper referred to as a “long-shot” bid, will focus on “appealing to evangelicals, adopting a hard-line position in support of a federal abortion ban, promoting free trade and pushing back against Republican efforts to police big business on ideological grounds.”

This goes against positions long held by Trump, especially on trade, while the policing of big business is essentially Ron DeSantis’ main case for his own presidential bid. 

“We have to resist the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles,” Mike Pence told the Times.

Pence also has argued that Social Security and Medicare reform is necessary, something that Trump opposed during his presidency. 

A pro-Pence super PAC called Committed to America will also soon launch, under the leadership of Scott Reed, who managed the campaign of another Republican of a different era – 1996 GOP presidential nominee, the late Bob Dole. 

The strategy also focuses on doing well in Iowa, with its large evangelical population, where such GOP candidates of the past as Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum have done well. 

“We’re going to organize Iowa, all 99 counties like we’re running him for county sheriff,” Reed told the Times. “This campaign is going to reintroduce Mike Pence to the country as his own man… People know Mike Pence. They just don’t know him well.”

Pence in a MAGA GOP 

The question will be whether there is any appetite in today’s Republican Party for a new version of Reaganism, the sort of politics that was often invoked in the Bush-Cheney era, but much less frequently since the rise of Trump. 

The other challenge for Mike Pence, for the Times piece, is how often he will discuss January 6, when he performed the normal function of the vice president in presiding over the count of the electoral votes, while not acquiescing to Trump’s wishes that he overrule them. It was an action that, while Pence’s only legal option, set off a massive backlash, including January 6 rioters chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” 

“That issue is not a winning one with the base of the Republican Party,” the Times said. “But Mr. Pence’s team believes there are enough Republicans who might be won over by Mr. Pence describing the moment as adhering to constitutional principles.”

Polls of late indicate that Mike Pence hasn’t gotten much traction, although it remains early and the former vice president is not yet formally running. 

The latest Morning Consult tracking poll, updated on Tuesday, has Pence with 6 percent support, which places him in third place, although far behind Trump (with 61 percent) and DeSantis (with 18 percent.) Pence is, however, ahead of declared candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, who each poll at 4 percent. 

For much of the spring, Pence has polled in the 6-7 percent range. 

The Atlantic earlier this spring sat in on focus groups in which voters were asked about Mike Pence, and he received something of a muted response. 

MORE: Could Donald Trump Be Disqualified from Becoming President Again?

MORE: Could Donald Trump Quit the GOP?

Expertise and Experience

Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Written By

Stephen Silver is a journalist, essayist, and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

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