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Former Vice President Mike Pence may be positioning himself as an acceptable alternative to former President Donald Trump, but he will have to strike a delicate balance between showing respect for Trump and distancing himself from the former president.
Pence's advocacy organization, Advancing American Freedom, unveiled a 28-page "Freedom Agenda" on Thursday that emphasizes many conservative policy priorities in a move that some observers will see as part of a potential 2024 White House bid.
The Freedom Agenda strikes many familiar Republican notes on issues including abortion, perceived censorship of conservatives on social media, taxation, and religious liberty. It also calls for the completion of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that was a centerpiece of Trump's 2016 campaign.
The document touts Pence's time as Trump's vice president, referring to some "Trump-Pence" policies, but it also puts distance between Pence and his former boss on certain issues, according to political experts who spoke to Newsweek about the agenda.
For example, the agenda takes aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that he "undermines freedom and democracy at home and abroad, while jeopardizing stability by threatening the sovereignty of Russia's neighbors."
Trump has recently been criticized for comments asking Putin to find and release information about President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Neither Trump nor Pence have formally said they will run for president but the former president has repeatedly hinted at another White House bid. Polls have also shown that GOP voters favor Trump for the nomination.
If Trump decides not to run, Pence will have to win over his base in order to secure the nomination.
Walking a Fine Line
Paul Quirk, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Newsweek that Pence's agenda attempts, in part, to differentiate him from the former president.
"Pence's new policy agenda attempts to walk a fine line," Quirk said. "On the one hand, embracing former President Trump's policies and touting the achievements of 'the Trump-Pence Administration,' and on the other hand, dismissing Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election, condemning his support for Russia and President Putin, and rejecting his claim to on-going leadership of the Republican Party."
Quirk said it was worth wondering whether Republican voters "will appreciate the nuances" in Pence's agenda.
"But, with Pence's complicated history with Trump, this is certainly the lane for seeking the Republican nomination that is available to him," he said.
An Acceptable Alternative
Thomas Gift, founding director of University College London's Centre on U.S. Politics, told Newsweek that Pence's agenda "inspires about the same amount of excitement as the 2024 hopeful himself—that's to say: not much."
"The document itself—28 pages of generic, right-of-center talking points—won't exactly distinguish Pence from other potential Republican contenders," Gift said.
"But then again, maybe that's the point," he went on. "Pence has to know he stands little chance of peeling away support from Trump if his former boss decides to run. So perhaps Pence's plan is simply to position himself as the minimally acceptable alternative on the off chance Trump bows out."
Winning the Trump Base
Mark Shanahan is an associate professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Reading University in the U.K., and co-editor of The Trump Presidency: From Campaign Trail to World Stage. He told Newsweek that Pence's agenda was an appeal to Trump supporters.
"For one thing, Pence is aligning himself with Trump again—all the achievements are detailed as Trump-Pence, and there's little, if anything, new, fresh or imaginative on offer from the former vice president," Shanahan said.
Shanahan said the agenda bore similarities to Republican President Warren Harding's "100 Percent Americanism" of 100 years ago.
"This is aimed squarely at the heartland: the former Trump base, with the aim of garnering that base should Trump not contest in 2024," he said. "Rarely have so few ideas been sprinkled with so many right-wing triggers."
"All that Pence offers is a war on the GOP-created concept of 'woke,'" Shanahan said.
The Big Lie
Trump has repeatedly called into the question the results of the 2020 presidential election, demanding audits in several states and supporting unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and other irregularities. He has also criticized Pence for not doing more to prevent the certification of the election on January 6, 2021.
While many Republicans have embraced those claims, Pence rebuked Trump over the election and said the former president was "wrong" that he had the power to overturn the results as vice president. That earned a stern response from Trump.
Quirk noted that the Freedom Agenda mentions election security but does not embrace the so-called "Big Lie" of election fraud.
"He calls for election reform without reference to Trump's Big Lie about the 2020 election," Quirk told Newsweek. "In fact, he makes no actual claims about any problems of fraud, corruption, or unreliability under existing practices.
"He just endorses standard Republican election measures—requiring voter ID, limiting early voting, and setting strict requirements for mail-in voting.
"In effect, he invites Republicans to abandon efforts to reinstate Trump as president or to exert blatant partisan influence over local election administration. But he allows them to maintain their complaints and reservations about the legitimacy of the 2020 election," Quirk said.
Time To Move On
Pence's viability as a 2024 candidate may depend not only on whether Trump runs or not, but also on whether GOP voters are ready to move past Trump.
"Pence wants to say, basically, 'Trump was great, but he's made some mistakes, and it's time to move on.' He also wants to invoke a more traditional, Reaganite Republicanism," Quirk said.
"That could be a winning message in the 2024 nomination contest—but not if Trump has anything to say about it. Pence is probably the last potential Republican candidate that Trump would ever endorse or accept as the nominee.
"So Pence's presidential aspiration has two crucial premises: first, that Trump is thoroughly discredited as a leader of the Republican Party; and second, that Pence doesn't have to do too much of the heavy lifting to accomplish that," Quirk said.
About the writer
Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more