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Does Mike Pence have a path to the presidency?
To understand Mike Pence’s chances at winning the White House in 2024, look at his favorite Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11, which has hung over his mantle for more than two decades: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
One interpretation is that Pence believes he is predestined to win the White House. Another is an apocalyptic reading that this is tied to the second coming of Jesus.
But based on my conversations with his friends and close associates over the years, Pence has a very different view from either of those: Keep your head down, do the work and God will provide.
Placed in the context of the Bible, the verse comes as God is instructing the Jews they will have to wait 70 years to return to their homeland, and he directs them not to heed false prophets. In other words, they’re going to have to keep slogging it out a long time, but they will be rewarded for their patience.
But the better clue for why Pence values this verse comes in the context of his own life and political career. As I reported in my biography of Pence, his wife—Karen Pence—had this verse framed for him when they decided to make their third (and first successful) run for Congress in 2000. That started a 20-year winning streak for Pence that ended only in 2020 in his second run with Trump for the White House.
Pence is, functionally, a political pragmatist. Sometimes that is viewed as timidness. But the reality—as Richard Ben Cramer noted in his seminal work on running for president, “What it Takes”—is that running for president is a marathon. And that often means starts and stops, and waiting patiently for the right moment.
In 2014, with the political world watching to see if Pence would dive into the 2016 race, his advisers lamented that he missed his best chance to run for president in 2012, when he could have grabbed the mantle of conservatism in the party and held the coalition that would eventually form behind Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
In October 2016, after the stunning “Access Hollywood” tape was revealed with Trump bragging about grabbing women’s genitals, Republican donors came to Pence with a plan to replace Trump as the GOP nominee for president. Pence’s top political aide beat back the idea, in part because some thought Trump would lose in a little less than a month, likely catapulting Pence to front-runner in 2020.
Trump won, Pence survived four years in office with him—including sweeping investigations into Russia’s efforts to swing the election to Trump, a pair of impeachments and no less than the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, where Trump’s enraged supporters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!”
And even after all those twists and turns, Pence’s advisers say he is still keeping his head down and doing the work. And that work is running for president in 2024 (although nothing has been formalized).
There’s a good chance this might be Pence’s final moment to take the leap and file to run for president. The question now is whether discipline, a methodical approach and faith will be enough to deliver Pence the Republican nomination in 2024 and, potentially, the Oval Office itself.•
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LoBianco is a political reporter in Washington and author of the Pence biography, “Piety & Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House.” He has covered Pence for a decade.
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Mike Pence is a lock to become president …
of Hillsdale College or Liberty University.
Pence doesn’t have a prayer. He’s a sellout to the RINO’s and Deep Staters.
don’t waste your time running. both sides don’t like you now
Pence would make a good centrist President without the Trump theatrics and without the radical left socialism.
The commentator had the best of it when he said Pence sees the Bible verse as saying: “Keep your head down, do the work and God will provide.” Those are values neither the radical left nor radical right know or espouse, and that may be the issue holding him back.
It is also a long time to 2024. Biden got in because Trump provided the theatrics. Pence does not seem a theatrics type, but if Biden makes a 2nd run, his youth compared to Biden, and lack of gaffes, even with a leftist media, would make him a strong contender. If Biden screws the economy up enough, Trump may look better in a 2024 re-run, especially if he controls his “you’re fired!” television theatrics.
Mike Pence, centrist?
Please.
That the right continues to head further and further right doesn’t mean that Mike Pence is a centrist Republican. Centrist Republicans have been cast out of the party for being RINO’s.
Well-stated, Fred S.
Sorry but no way can he be President. Every time he reminds us he’s “a Christian first, public servant second (or is that third?) blah blah blah” it reminds me and anyone who truly cares about the Constitution that his priorities don’t align with real Republicans. The Founders did not create the U.S. to be a Christian nation, so Pence’s political mantra and actions with RFRA, etc., don’t work in a nation that is founded upon the yet-to-be-achieved idea that all men (and women) are created equal as citizens. And I firmly believe this as a Christian and longtime Republican.
Well said, Eric.
Don’t see it. He has hit is penultimate level, and frankly playing the #2 role is his strength IMO. He was quite underwhelming as a governor, and based on that I couldn’t support him as a presidential candidate. I always thought when he joined Trump’s ticket, he saved himself from having a lackluster re election campaign.
As a Republican, I can say I HATE Pence… I would vote AGAINST him.
How open-minded of you, Kurt, to offer that statement with no particulars as to why you are of that opinion.
Jesus is going to beat him with a wet noodle on judgement day. So No.
Pence is a Christian in name only – prayer does not make one a Christian, although it’s a good optic to always say ” I am a Christian first etc..” and to supposedly pray about decisions and everything else.So easy to talk the talk. He has absolutely no chance of getting elected to the presidency. He probably couldn’t have even got a second term in Indiana.