Prospects Brighten for Pence in Leadup to Midterms — Despite Defying Trump on January 6
For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support.
For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support.
In President Trump’s assessment, Vice President Pence “committed political suicide” on January 6, 2021.
By refusing to go along with the then-president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Mr. Pence became a leading target of Mr. Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles.
But the final weeks of this year’s intensely competitive midterm elections suggest that the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential 2024 White House campaign.
The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand draw for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Mr. Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting his election claims.
Mr. Pence has traveled the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees.
For some campaigns in tight races, Mr. Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Mr. Trump’s core base of support.
That’s the case in Arizona, with a critical Senate race this year and where the 2024 presidential campaign will be hotly contested. Last week, Mr. Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary and win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents.
“He takes a little bit of the edge off Masters with a lot of voters,” a veteran GOP strategist, Scott Reed, said. “You know Masters is new to this, first-time candidate, said some silly things he probably regrets during the campaign. But now it’s all about undecided voters in Maricopa County. There’s not a lot more science behind this.”
The endorsements can seem jarring given that Mr. Pence has spent much of the past year pushing back on Mr. Trump’s election claims, which spurred the violent mob that descended on the Capitol on January 6 while Mr. Pence was trying to preside over the formal congressional certification of President Biden’s election victory.
Mr. Pence and members of his family had to be rushed to safety and were held for hours in an underground loading dock as the marauders roamed the building’s hallways. Some rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a makeshift gallows outside.
Mr. Pence agreed to endorse Mr. Masters even though the Arizona Senate nominee, during the primary, denied the 2020 election results. Mr. Masters recorded a video in which he said he thought Mr. Trump had won and claimed on his website that “if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today.”
Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Masters in June, saying in a statement: “Blake knows that the “Crime of the Century” took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.”
Mr. Pence made no mention of that at Phoenix on Tuesday.
“What I came here to Arizona to say is not only is Blake Masters the right choice for the United States Senate, the people of Arizona deserve to know Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the Senate,” Mr. Pence said.
The former vice president, along with Mr. Masters and Governor Ducey, took just three questions, two of them from conservative websites. When a television reporter noted that Mr. Masters has questioned the 2020 election, a spokesman for Mr. Masters cut him off before he could finish his question.
Mr. Masters is not the only election skeptic Mr. Pence has endorsed or assisted.
Two days after the Masters event, Mr. Pence was in Georgia headlining a fundraiser for the nominee for lieutenant governor, Burt Jones. Mr. Jones not only embraced Mr. Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and called for a statewide investigation into the 2020 race, but he also signed on to be one of his state’s fake alternate electors — a scheme now under criminal investigation.
Last month, Mr. Pence was in New Hampshire for Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who also spent his primary campaign telling voters the race was stolen from Mr. Trump.
A longtime Pence adviser, Marc Short, declined to set a red line for candidates Mr. Pence would and would not endorse.
“It’s more about making sure that he’s being a team player where he needs to be,” Mr. Short said. “I think as a lot of these candidates look to solidify the party behind them, Pence can be helpful.”
The Masters endorsement notably came days after a debate in which he made headlines for seeming to have shifted from his most outrageous rigged election claims.
Mr. Masters instead blamed Mr. Trump’s loss on “big tech,” “big media” and the FBI, and under repeated questioning, acknowledged he hadn’t seen evidence the vote count or results were manipulated, as Mr. Trump has claimed.
After Mr. Pence’s visit, Mr. Masters told Fox News he stood by what he had said on his now-modified website, adding: “I think if everyone followed the law, President Trump would be in the Oval Office.”
Mr. Short said Mr. Pence was happy to support candidates who had moved past 2020, as the former vice president has urged the party to do.
“If people sort of acknowledged a mistaken position before, he certainly wants to reward that,” Mr. Short said. “I think he wants to help conservatives first and foremost, but if people who were elected are now adopting a new position about the events of January 6,” Mr. Short said, “then that’s a positive.”
Mr. Jones and General Bolduc have also tried to distance themselves from their previous statements.
In interviews, Mr. Jones has tried to play down the fake elector slate as a “procedural move,” while noting that voters rarely mention the 2020 race.
“Look he’s been consistent that he does not believe the 2020 election was rigged. He said that Joe Biden is president,” said a Jones campaign spokesman, Stephen Lawson, who noted that Messrs. Pence and Jones have a long-standing relationship and, like Mr. Masters, share former Pence staff.
“For us, it was sort of a no-brainer because the vice president’s still very well liked in Georgia, very well received. And we’re in that final stretch where any Republican coming to raise money, support, is a value add,” he said.
“I think it’s certainly a nod to more mainstream kind of moderate Republicans. I think that’s a fair assessment,” he said.
General Bolduc claimed throughout the primary race that the 2020 election had been stolen. During a debate, he proclaimed that “Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by” and added, “I’m not switching horses, baby.”
But right after the GOP primary — and a day after appearing with Mr. Pence — he told Fox News it was time to move on. “You know, we live and learn, right? And I’ve done a lot of research on this and I’ve spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state from every party,” he said.
“I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive on this: The election was not stolen,” General Bolduc said. He described Mr. Biden as “the legitimate president of this country.”
Earlier this month General Bolduc changed his position again, saying he wasn’t sure what happened with the election. “I can’t say that it was stolen or not. I don’t have enough information.”
Mr. Reed, the party strategist, said he understood the rationale behind Mr. Pence’s endorsements.
“He’s a big picture party guy. And it doesn’t surprised me that he’s hustling as hard as he is for people who may not be 100 percent Pencers,” he said. “By doing these kinds of events,” he added, “they’re going to take another look at him if he decides to run.”
Mr. Pence’s political future is an open question. Mr. Trump, who is widely expected to run again, remains deeply popular with Republican primary voters and would almost certainly be an early front-runner for the 2024 nomination.
Mr. Pence has said his own decision about running will not be influenced by Mr. Trump, though allies often voice skepticism that Mr. Trump ultimately will end up on the ballot.