It’s been nearly eight months since former Vice President Mike Pence appeared on Fox News and gave the political world an unexpected jolt. “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years,” the Hoosier said, “and that’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.”
In early August, Pence appeared at a conservative event in Georgia, again refused to extend support to his former boss and said he’s “staying out of the presidential campaign.”
Evidently, he meant it. Newsday reported:
Despite having voted for Democrats when he was younger, former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told a Long Island audience on Tuesday he could “never support” Kamala Harris and Tim Walz but declined to say whether he would be casting a ballot for the president he once served, Donald Trump. Pence, 65, in an hourlong appearance one week before Election Day, spoke about his Christian faith, civility in politics and parting ways with Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I haven’t endorsed our ticket,” the former vice president said at the gathering. “I have real concerns about the direction of the Republican Party today.”
Asked specifically whether he’d cast a vote for his party’s nominee, Pence added: “I said all I’m going to say today.”
This comes on the heels of the Indiana Republican publicly urging Republicans to reject “protectionist tariffs” and “isolationism,” which was generally seen as a rebuke of his former partner’s agenda.
If Trump hoped that Pence would eventually come around, put party over country, and grudgingly throw his support behind the Republican ticket, those hopes have been dashed.
The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last made a compelling case in the spring that Pence’s non-endorsement deserved to be seen as among the year’s most important electoral developments.
“No vice president has ever said that his former boss is unfit to serve,” Last wrote. “It is the most devastating possible observation from the most credible source in existence. This should be part of the context of every single story about this campaign.”
I mention this because, nearly eight months later, Pence’s announcement no longer seems to be a major part of the 2024 conversation, and that strikes me as unfortunate. Pence ran with Trump in 2016, before serving at Trump’s side for four years. Pence saw how Trump thought, how he led, how he processed information, how he prioritized and how he tried to govern.
It’s against that backdrop that the former vice president has refused to endorse the president with whom he served — an unprecedented dynamic in the nation’s history. It’s hardly unjust for Trump’s critics to ask, “If his own vice president isn’t supporting him, why should you?”
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
