I said this on The Editors last week after the CNN town hall: Mike Pence should run for president. I think Jeff is probably correct that Pence is unlikely to win, and candidates who are unlikely to win should, in general, not run. But Pence is a special case.
As Phil wrote today, there’s at least a plausible theory that Pence could win the Iowa caucuses. That’s not true for, say, Vivek Ramaswamy. Phil went on to say, “Pence running would also be a bet on the thesis that traditional Reaganite Republicans are still a larger contingent of the party than most people think.” That’s a smart bet. Reagan was one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history and is still a widely admired figure among Republican voters. If other candidates are shying away from invoking his legacy, Pence could establish support by doing so.
Pence was vice president. Before that, he was a successful conservative congressman and governor of Indiana. He’s by all accounts a man of good character who has conducted himself with uncommon propriety in the public eye. That’s presidential material. In a saner political world, Pence would be an automatic front-runner.
We don’t live in a saner political world. True. But we’ll never get to one if politicians such as Pence stop running for office.
Dan has theorized that Pence might see his campaign as a kamikaze attack on Trump’s campaign. He argued that though both of them would fail to win the nomination, Pence is uniquely situated to take on Trump. Unlike other Trump critics, Pence has not abandoned any of his conservative principles, and he stood loyally by Trump through an entire presidential term and two presidential campaigns. He has credibility that nobody else has to take on Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and make a case to conservative voters that somebody else is better suited to pursue their priorities in the White House.
Dan wrote, “Having seen how things ended in 2020–21, [Pence] may want to save the party he has served for four decades.” That’s an honorable reason to run for president. Regardless of whether Pence runs, Trump is going to keep lying about Pence’s supposed power to “send the election back to the states.” Pence did the right thing, knows he did the right thing, and should defend himself before the American public rather than shrink from the fight.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen too many otherwise solid conservative politicians throw in the towel because they believe Trump or the candidates he endorses are too strong to defeat. A handful, such as Brian Kemp in Georgia, Brad Little in Idaho, and Robin Vos in Wisconsin, have successfully stood up for themselves and their records against Trump. Pence should follow their examples and remind Republicans that there is a better way forward.