- Former VP
Mike Pence has stumped for some Republicans who voted to overturn 2020, NYT reports. - Pence is laying the groundwork for a possible 2024 run, including campaigning for House candidates.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has campaigned for at least three Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election in Congress, The New York Times reports.
Pence has headlined several campaign events and fundraisers for Republican members of Congress, especially in Iowa and the Midwest as he lays the groundwork for a possible 2024 presidential run, per The Times.
Pence broke with former
The former VP paid a visit on Wednesday morning to the influential Republican Study Committee, where the assembled House Republicans praised him for defending democracy on January 6, 2021, and some urged him to run in 2024, CNN and Axios reported.
But Pence's efforts to build up his political operation and make his inroads in the GOP base have found him boosting some members who embraced doubts about the 2020 election and voted against certifying electoral votes from states that voted for Biden on January 6.
He's campaigned for Rep. Jim Banks, the RSC's chair, Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, who is running for governor, and Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah — all three of whom voted to reject slates of electors from states that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, according to The Times.
Pence has also spoken at a campaign event for Rep. Darrin LaHood of Illinois, who did not vote against certifying the election on January 6 but did sign on to a long-shot lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to nullify Biden's win in six states in the Supreme Court.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a leading Republican Trump foe and member of the January 6 Committee, declined to run for reelection in 2022 after redistricting put him in the same district as LaHood.
But Pence has also backed candidates who rejected Trump's false election claims. In the House, he's campaigned for Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, according to The Times. Both Republicans voted to certify the 2020 election and voted to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection.
Pence has also engaged in proxy battles with Trump in two high-profile gubernatorial elections where the former president's lies are looming large and a major voting issue in Republican primaries.
In Georgia, Pence and other Republican governors who defended the 2020 election gave a boost to Gov. Brian Kemp, who Trump attacked for defending the integrity of Biden's narrow 2020 win in the state. Kemp handily defeated his Trump-endorsed challenger, former Sen. David Perdue, who eagerly embraced Trump's falsehoods and grievances about the 2020 election.
And in Arizona, Pence and incumbent Gov. Doug Ducey, who also rebuffed Trump's pressure to meddle with Biden's win in the state, are backing Karrin Taylor Robson in the Republican gubernatorial primary over Trump-endorsed Kari Lake, a former local news anchor who is largely running on the lies that the 2020 election was stolen and has embraced other conspiracy theories.