Mike Pence couldn’t have asked for a friendlier audience. For nearly 30 minutes, running mate Donald J. Trump drew repeated applause as he delivered a strong affirmation of his support for Israel at a conference of mostly conservative Jewish leaders in midtown Manhattan.
He hardly paused when his questioner, Zvika Klein, editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, asked Mr. Pence, an evangelical Christian, to lead the room in prayer for the Israeli hostages held by Hamas on October 7. great honor: Let us pray,” he said.
His request drew applause and cheers of “Amen”.
In the seven months since he dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, in the face of defeat in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Pence has been seeking out a friendly audience like this as he embarks on a mission to resuscitate his political career. But most of all, he presented himself as the guardian of the conservative tradition of the Republican Party that he grew up with and that has now been redefined by Mr. Trump.
He has since opened high-profile television interviews to criticize Mr Trump’s position on abortion, in one instance. He announced that his political advocacy group will spend $20 million this year on appearances and ads promoting conservative positions on issues including tariffs, government spending and America’s role in the world.
Mr. Pence is the most prominent Republican in the country to say he will not endorse Mr. Trump, the man who voted for Mr. Pence when he was governor of Indiana and put him in the White House. And he has made it clear that, at the age of 65, he will not rule out another bid for the presidency.
“The role I want to play is to be a champion for the broad, common conservative agenda that the Republican Party has established since the days of Ronald Reagan,” he said in an interview before his appearance at the conference. “I see some evidence that some voices in and around our party are going away from it – I want my voice, my organization, to be an anchor for the wind.”
But for all that, Mr. Pence is clearly out of step with the party that once embraced him. For many Trump loyalists, he is still the vice president who refuses to join Mr. Trump in taking power on January 6, 2021.
“Judas Pence is a dead man walking with MAGA, regardless of the 30 pieces of silver in his PAC,” said Stephen K. Bannon, leader of Mr. Trump’s movement, referring to Mr. Pence’s advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom. (He said in a text a few hours before a federal judge ordered him to report to prison on July 1 to begin serving a four-month prison sentence imposed on him for disobeying a subpoena from a House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.)
With a low-key, Midwestern presence, Mr. Pence stands in stark contrast to the current Republican Party, personified by Mr. Trump and, for that matter, by Mr. Bannon. In the interview, Mr. Pence, speaking quietly while sitting in his chair, apparently surprised by the suggestion that he has become an island in his own party, a Republican Robinson Crusoe standing alone as Mr. Trump remakes the party in his name. .
“I hope not,” he said. “I wish I was on the continent. I’ve been everywhere since I joined the Republican Party.”
“When I was president, people would often say, ‘The problem with Mike Pence is that he’s running in a Republican Party that no longer exists,'” Mr. Pence said. “This is not my experience. Everywhere I went on the campaign trail, people, whether they supported the former president or supported someone else, almost invariably would say, ‘I appreciate what you stand for.’ I believe it is still a conservative party.
But the signs of his isolation were many. Mr. Pence said he had not spoken to Mr. Trump “in a long time.” Republicans say it’s unlikely he’ll be offered a prominent speaker’s spot when the party gathers for its convention this July in Milwaukee. A YouGov/Economist poll from March found that 52 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of Mr. Pence, compared with 42 percent who have a favorable view of the former vice president.
And despite the way he remembers his reception on the presidential trail, Mr. Pence never broke single digits in most early polls, despite the benefits of being a former vice president. He was forced out of the race before he reached Iowa.
The idea of a former vice president not supporting a serving president is so outlandish that President Biden called it a sharp joke at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
By contrast, Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations, and Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, who both attracted far more support in their successful bid for the Republican presidential nomination, said they would vote for Mr. Trump. Mr Pence said he would not vote for Mr Biden, but would not say who he might support.
“I’m very pleased with Mike — I highly recommend him to Trump in ’16,” said Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House. But he said: “Mike Pence is now at a different party than he was when he appealed to a different constituency than two years ago. And unfortunately for Mike, that tends to drive people into the corner. On his current trajectory, he will shrink into the vote Never Trump.
“There is no future in the Republican Party as anti-Trump,” Mr. Gingrich said.
Mr Pence has been doing well as he has spent the last few months trying to distinguish himself from – and criticize – a very popular figure in the party as Mr Trump, a former ally who tried to force Mr Pence out of the party. glare.
In the interview, Mr. Pence denounced the case against Mr. Trump that led to his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up $130,000 in hush-money payments to porn stars. “I expect his felony conviction to be overturned. This case should never have been brought.”
But at the Jerusalem Post forum, he barely spoke about Mr. Trump except to connect himself with Mr. Trump’s decision, as popular in this room as the former president himself, to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Mr Pence said Mr Trump had changed over the past four years, straying from traditional Republican positions.
“On some issues, I’ve seen the president run on an agenda that’s different from what we’re set on,” Mr. Pence said. “I see the president moving in the direction of some isolationist voices in our party. Or the national debt — he never tried to change the entitlements that represent 85 percent of our federal spending.
Mr. Pence has been particularly vocal in assailing Mr. Trump on abortion. While Mr. Pence and many other conservatives pushed for a national ban on the procedure, Mr. Trump called for a statewide ban. Mr. Pence’s position has gained some admirers in the important corners of the Republican coalition.
“He is the steady rudder of the pro-life movement among Republican leaders,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading group opposed to abortion rights. “He hasn’t changed. He’s never been one to try the wind.”
Ms. Dannenfelser, whose organization supported Mr. Trump this November, said Mr. Pence would have a well of support from abortion opponents if he were to return to politics in a post-Trump world.
“On the other side of this upcoming presidential race, it’s definitely a gut check,” he said. “And they’re going to be an important and important part of that gut check.”
Tim Chapman, a senior adviser to Mr. Pence’s advocacy group, said the former vice president sees himself as “a fire keeper during a time when the right is going to be terrible.”
“Everyone is playing a game to show how close they are to Trump,” Mr Chapman said. “Don’t pretend. Everyone knows where we are. We are liberated in a way that no other group is liberated.
While Mr. Pence travels the country, gives speeches and interviews, raises money, presents himself as a potential candidate for national office – “I will keep you posted,” he said when asked if he will seek the White House again – his next chapter seems to be gloomy, at least through November.
Mr. Pence is going up against the most powerful figure in the Republican Party since Ronald Reagan. Until then, there was no room in Trump’s world for a candidate like Mr. Pence.
“He’s done,” Mr. Bannon said. “But like all career politicians, they are addicted to being relevant.”