ANKENY, Iowa—Upon officially launching his campaign for the presidency, Mike Pence almost immediately said two things that other Republicans have taken pains to avoid – things that were perhaps once thought unimaginable for the ever-loyal former vice president from Indiana.
He condemned the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, which precipitated his split with Donald Trump, as “a tragic day in the life of our nation.” And he delivered a thorough condemnation of the former president, his strongest statements to date.
“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” Pence told a crowd, before adding, “and I believe that anyone who asked someone else to put themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.”
It was a reference to the effort to negate the results of the 2020 election, and it was easily the sharpest rebuke of Trump offered by any major candidate. Pence, the man who would not split publicly with the former president for four years, the loyal vice president who never sought the spotlight at the expense of his boss, is now gunning for Trump. Others tiptoe around the frontrunner. Pence will not. He seemed unburdened compared to his time as VP. Advocating for himself, he was relaxed.
Former vice presidents don’t run against former presidents, at least not the ones they served under, and Pence must find a way to advertise his achievements in the previous administration without elevating Trump. The new candidate realizes this.
Barely out of the gate himself, Pence said he was “incredibly proud” of the previous administration’s accomplishments, pointing to tax cuts and three Supreme Court confirmations. Then he pivoted. Of the man he knows perhaps better than anyone else, Pence said, “When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative.” Of the man he now seeks to deny a third Republican nomination, he added, “Today, he makes no such promise.”
It was the first explicit attempt to thread the needle between Trump’s policies that Pence helped shape and Trump the man, who ultimately abandoned his vice president as rioters stormed the Capitol, chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” It will become a defining effort of his campaign. Lest there be any confusion among the press, the campaign changed the Wi-Fi password to “KeptHisOath!”
The candidate also knows that his candidacy will be as much about how voters receive him as it will be a referendum on the modern Republican party. When RCP asked Pence, an old talk radio host who described himself in the 1990s as “Rush Limbaugh on decaf,” if primary voters would prefer a principled conservative rather than an overly caffeinated populist with a bad Twitter habit, he smiled.
“I don't know,” Pence said in a March interview. “We may have to test that theory.” That experiment began in earnest in Ankeny as voters got to know Pence, not as vice president, but as his own man.
Amanda Aswegan made the hour-long drive from Guthrie Center for Pence’s speech Wednesday. Still undecided afterward, she told RCP she felt Trump “has an ax to grind,” and expressed worry over how “he’d use power a second time around.” The 42-year-old Iowa Republican has seen the early polls that show Pence trailing and dismissed them as quickly. “At this point, it doesn’t matter what the odds are; I just want to vote for who I believe will do the best job.”
“This is definitely a marathon, not a sprint,” said Brian Town, a middle school principal. Pence had stopped in at Des Moines Christian Schools earlier this year, sharing stories with students about both his time in government and his religious testimony, something that impressed Town then and now. He was comforted, he told RCP, that Pence has faith “and a lot of his political decisions are based upon truth and his belief in Jesus as well.”
With the experiment now underway, Pence will test whether the country still has an appetite for old GOP orthodoxies. He will not, however, stray from the social conservatism that has defined his career. A staunch opponent of abortion who previously told RealClearPolitics that he supports a national abortion ban, Pence blasted Trump “and others in this race” for “retreating” from the debate. He said that the Trump post-presidency was treating the issue, which evangelical voters hold dear, “as an inconvenience, even blaming our election losses in 2022 on overturning Roe v Wade.”
As he was speaking, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the influential anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, issued a statement that stopped just short of a ringing endorsement, calling Pence “the definition of an unapologetic pro-life leader” and “a longtime friend of unborn children.”
Pence already codified his split with the former president in his memoir, and for the last two years, the trusted social conservative has slowly been coaxing other Republicans to make their own divorce from Trump official. He wrote a memoir, toured the country, and launched a nonprofit called Advancing America to fight culture war battles in the courts.
Citing his time as governor of Indiana and as an outspoken conservative in Congress, Pence and his team believe that Pence has a legitimate claim to the “constitutional conservative lane.” During his campaign kick-off, he made the argument that Republicans must resist “the politics and personality” and “the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principle.”
Two principles Pence says he won’t abandon: Fiscal conservatism and a more hawkish foreign policy. He said that Trump and President Biden share “the same” view on entitlements, which is to let Social Security and Medicare go on as they are, leaving “a mountain range of debt on our children and grandchildren.”
Pence also promised to stand against Russia, telling the crowd that “the war in Ukraine is not our war, but freedom is our fight,” blasting Trump for praising Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as “a genius” and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for dismissing the invasion as “a territorial dispute.” Pence, who once stared down Putin face-to-face, added, “I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal.”
That kind of rhetoric, matched with a resume of conservative accomplishments from his time in both the federal legislature and state executive office, would normally make Pence one of the early front-runners. Post-Trump, however, the mood on the right has shifted, even as Pence remains stalwart and likely one of the more conservative choices among the field. In fourth place behind Trump, DeSantis, and former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, Pence trails the former president by 50 points in the RealClearPolitics Average.
Jake Strother also traveled to see the candidate in person. The 20-year-old from Oklahoma City wore an American flag polo with matching shorts and told RCP that Pence “is a godly man.” The way he sees it, “That’s what the country needs right now.” Was the former vice president too much of a throwback, though? Not at all, according to Strother, who reported after the speech that the former vice president wasn’t “boring.” Instead, he thought of Pence as “a calm, steady hand.”
Another recent college grad, James Roskopf, felt the same way, telling RCP that Pence’s religion and life story “resonated” with him. “I just think we need somebody a little more levelheaded than Trump,” he said. “Somebody who can stand on his own.”
Pence would likely appreciate that description. He calls himself “a happy warrior,” and the 64-year-old Hoosier still believes his brand of politics can resonate in an era of bombastic populism. In a Saturday interview, he told RCP that his candidacy would seek to embody “a respect” for both the competition and the process “that the American people, I believe, long to see restored.”
A devout Christian, Pence has long cultivated an image as a servant leader. His presidential announcement was no different.
As Karen Pence introduced her husband, she recalled his first unsuccessful race for Congress in 1990, when “we were humbled. And it was a good thing.” They resolved later, the former first lady of Indiana said, that in their political efforts, “instead of ambition driving us, we should allow God to lift us up to wherever he wants to use us.” Those themes, according to the Pence family, still drive them.
“Everything I am – everything I ever will be – I owe to my family, to the people of this country, and to Almighty God,” Pence said as he begins his candidacy and the monumental, if not impossible task, of wresting the Republican party away from Trump.
