Left with no path to 2024 success, Mike Pence exits stage right

By any fair measure, former Vice President Mike Pence’s 2024 campaign was flailing. The Indiana Republican’s fundraising was poor, his debts were rising, and attendance at his events was routinely referred to as “tiny.” Pence’s debate performances weren’t bad, but they didn’t translate into increased support: His standing in most polling hovered around the margin of error.

The question wasn’t whether the former vice president would exit the stage, but when. As NBC News reported, the answer came over the weekend.

As we’ve discussed, on paper, Pence had the appearance of a top-tier contender. He was a member of the House Republican leadership during his 12-year tenure on Capitol Hill; his voting record put him on the far-right fringe; he was twice elected governor in a reliably red state; and he was a vice president who was largely untarnished by multiple White House scandals.

What’s more, as much of the GOP base prioritizes social issues above all other considerations, especially in Iowa, Pence offered a lengthy record as a far-right culture warrior — a record that included hosting a radio program in which he complained about secret political messages he saw in Disney animation.

But for Republican voters, none of this mattered. Rather, the part of Pence’s record that obscured everything else was his willingness to participate in the certification of the 2020 presidential election after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

For the GOP base, this was unforgiveable. As a Washington Post analysis explained in May, shortly before Pence’s 2024 launch, “Recent polls from Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press show only a slight majority of Republicans like him, and as many as 4 in 10 dislike him. This is members of his own party. ... Because of this intraparty resistance, Pence’s overall numbers are poor — historically poor, in fact, for a major presidential candidate.”

This created a disadvantage that proved insurmountable.

His former partner in the White House responded to the developments in predictable fashion.

“[Pence] should endorse me,” Donald Trump said at a campaign event in Las Vegas. “You know why? Because I had a great, successful presidency and he was the vice president.” The former president added that he might not get such an endorsement, however, because “[p]eople in politics can be very disloyal.”

Oh my.

When I think of Pence, one scene keeps playing out in my mind. In June 2018, at FEMA headquarters, Trump sat at the head of the table, and at one point, took a water bottle and moved it to the floor. Moments later, his vice president mirrored the move, putting his water bottle on the floor, too.

For four years, Pence was obsequious to the point of embarrassment. He enabled Trump. He covered for Trump. He went along with outlandish Trump expectations — at one point even staying at a Trump-owned property in Ireland, literally on the other side of the country from Dublin, where he had official meetings.

But it wasn’t enough. For Trump, nothing ever is.

Indifferent to Pence's years of loyalty, the former president has defended rioters’ “hang Mike Pence” chants, blamed Pence for Jan. 6 violence, and taunted his former vice president as a “delusional” coward and bad person.

The idea that Trump would call out Pence for “disloyalty” says a great deal about the former president’s worldview.

When Pence was tapped for his party’s national ticket in 2016, he was widely seen among Republicans as a uniting intra-party figure. At the time, some constituencies within the GOP were still skeptical of Trump, and Pence was considered a reliable, far-right figure that could help reassure each of the party’s factions.

Nearly eight years later, after having held national office, Pence’s reputation in his party lies in tatters. His credibility among Republicans has been ruined, not because he was corrupt, but because Trump deemed him not corrupt enough, and GOP voters bought it.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.