Advertisement
OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s 2024 presidential run appears to be over for the time being.
“He announced the suspension while speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference in Las Vegas on Saturday,” CNN reported.
“Pence’s theory of his candidacy was simple – he broke from then-President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, and refocused on the core conservative principles that founded the modern Republican Party with Ronald Reagan, his political beacon,” CNN added.
The outlet noted further:
Advertisement
Pence, who was Indiana governor and a US congressman before being vice president, announced his campaign in early June. He chose to launch his campaign in Iowa, rather than his home state of Indiana, an indication of how much importance he was placing on the early voting state.
He attempted to visit all of Iowa’s 99 counties, focusing on face-to-face interactions in intimate settings. The Midwestern native leaned on his faith and courted fellow conservative evangelicals, a crucial voting bloc in the state.
Pence’s GOP presidential campaign went from bad to worse, according to the most recent federal election filings.
According to data seen by NBC News, Pence’s campaign debt is rising sharply in the third quarter after raising $3.3 million during the period. The campaign currently has $1.2 million in cash on hand, with $620,000 in debt, according to campaign finance data made public on Sunday. Also, NBC said that Pence has contributed $150,000 of his personal funds to his campaign, officials added.
NBC News noted further: “Pence’s numbers reveal a campaign under serious strain, operating on completely different financial terrain from that of his rivals, and they raise questions about his ability to continue to compete in the GOP primaries. Racking up debt, in particular, has long been a sign of presidential campaigns in trouble — and potentially on the verge of ending. The last GOP presidential primary season offers an ominous parallel from this moment eight years ago: Then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign reported just under $1 million in the bank and $161,000 in debt at the end of the third quarter of 2015, the equivalent moment in that election cycle. That’s when he dropped out of the race.”
The outlet went on to report that the following campaign finance report after Walker suspended his 2016 bid showed that, during the final three months of 2015, his campaign racked up $1.2 million in debt, which took him a full year to raise the money so he could retire it.
Pence’s campaign finance figures didn’t stack up against his GOP rivals. For instance, former UN ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s campaign closed out the third quarter with $9.1 million in cash, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign announced it has $5 million in the bank. And while Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has been blowing through cash, he also entered the race “with a well-stocked federal campaign account built up over years in the Senate,” NBC News noted.
“Former President Donald Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, said it had nearly $36 million available to spend on the 2024 primaries,” the outlet reported. “All of those figures are based on campaign announcements and cannot be independently verified until the campaigns file reports with the Federal Election Commission,” which were due by the end of Sunday.
Advertisement
In the days leading up to the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, then-Vice President Pence made “contemporaneous notes” of conversations he had with then-President Trump, notes that were revealed in August in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the former president.
Trump is accused of four federal crimes related to his actions following the 2020 presidential election, as well as unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged. Pence’s previously unreported notes are used as evidence against Trump, who has been accused of conspiring to defraud the United States, obstructing an official investigation, attempting to obstruct an investigation, and conspiring against rights.
