Former Vice President Mike Pence is once again taking on his former boss, this time as a challenger for the presidency.
Pence has filed paperwork for a run, and is expected to officially announce his candidacy on Wednesday after doing swings through primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire. As part of his pitch, he’s set to frame himself as a traditional “Reagan conservative” concerned about fiscal responsibility, but with a heavier emphasis on social issues like abortion.
It’s unclear, however, how much of a constituency that message and his candidacy have, given the party’s shift toward populism and the staunch support many voters still have for former President Donald Trump.
“This campaign is going to reintroduce Mike Pence to the country as his own man, not as vice president, but as a true economic, social, and national security conservative — a Reagan conservative,” Scott Reed, a co-chair for Pence’s Committed to America Super PAC, told reporters in May. Pence’s goal is to rally a coalition of evangelical voters and more traditional fiscal and social conservatives as he tries to defeat Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and the other competitors in a crowded primary field.
Whether he’ll be able to do that, however, is in doubt. Currently, FiveThirtyEight’s polling average has Pence lagging Trump and DeSantis by wide margins. Trump is far ahead with 54 percent support, DeSantis follows with 21 percent, and Pence comes in third with 5 percent. Pence’s past confrontation with Trump over the latter’s attempts to undermine the 2020 election results, and his work for the administration, also make it difficult for him to win over either Trump loyalists or the narrower segment of Republicans who oppose the former president, respectively. Because of that dynamic, it’s uncertain who the supporters of his candidacy will be.
“With the red meat Republican base voters, they think he betrayed Trump on January 6,” says Gunner…
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