America's Talking - Pence to Announce 2024 White House Bid

Episode Date: June 4, 2023

Former Vice President Mike Pence will announce his 2024 candidacy for president in Iowa next week. Several media outlets broke the news Wednesday, indicating the announcement will likely come June 7 in Des Moines, Iowa. The latest polling from Morning Consult puts Pence at 5% support, behind former President Donald Trump at 56% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 22%. Pence earned the ire of Trump and many of his supporters for refusing to back the former president’s challenge to the election results, especially after the infamous Jan. 6 Capitol protests. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America and Focus Powered by the Center Square. I am Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today is Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Yet another top contender. I guess top contenders, we can qualify that here in a minute. But another big name entered the GOP race for president of the United States. Former Vice President Mike Pence, Vice President Under President, former President Donald. Trump is now entering the race, which makes it a pretty crowded field. Tell us about it. Yeah, this is definitely getting more and more crowded. And Mike Pence is no fringe competitor. He is about 5 or 6 percent of the polling and the latest morning consult polling. Of course, you know, we have been warned by recent memory to not put too much stock in polling.

But regardless, fundraisers look at it. Campaigners, look at it. Pollsters, of course, are updating these polls constantly. So I think it's worth looking at. And just to give you the lay of the land, Donald Trump, you know, it changes. He's about 55% support in these polls. DeSantis is about 22, maybe 24% support for to Governor Ron DeSantis. And then Mike Pence is coming at five or six at third place.

You know, we've talked and written about other competitors like Larry Elder, who ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully. He's a radio host, commentator, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramoswamy, who's gone viral for some really articulate. it, you know, CNN segments and other things. He has put his hat in the ring. Ramoswamy is actually even with Haley at about 4% support. And Tim Scott, who just announced he's running as well, it's about 1%.

Now, U.S. Hunter from South Carolina, Tim Scott. Yeah. Correct. Now, they have their own, it's always, there's always a disconnect between who people here and the line base side of like and who the rest of America likes. And it's always really interesting, Dan, when, you know, I was talking to a Hill staffer, like Capitol Hill staffer the other day. And they're like, oh, I really like Tim Scott.

You know, he's great. I think he's the one. He's like the chosen one. And I just kind of laugh because it's every election cycle, the people who live in D.C. tell me pretty consistently the same people that they like and who they want to win. And then that's never the people who the rest of America actually like. So that's been an interesting phenomenon. But we can talk about the different strengths and weaknesses of these candidates are taking a different direction. But that's kind of the lay of the land. They all have a lot of ground to make up on Trump or Trump has to make a pretty big mistake for them to pull ahead. And right now, Desanta's seems to have the best shot. Trump, as you mentioned earlier, the huge frontrunner right now based on polling. Anyway, long way to go before the first primaries and, of course, the Iowa caucus is the first in January of 2024. Trump for months now has been taking aim at Florida Governor DeSantis, who many say is Trump's chief rival here, calling him names and criticizing him now for his things that he did as governor when President Trump was president, praised DeSanis' work as governor of Florida with Mike Pence now joining. What I like to see is how does the dynamic work between Trump

and Pence in this campaign? Does Trump go all in on criticizing his former vice president, the person he picked to be his vice president? Of course, there was some conflict between them at the end after the 2020 election when Trump wanted Pence to overturn the election results and Pence did not do that. One, is Trump going to go after Pence, do you think? And two, how is Pence going to defend himself? Yeah, it's an interesting question because, you know, Trump and DeSantis definitely have beef, as the kids would say. Or Trump and Pence, not DeSantis. Of course they do too. They have had conflict in the past, especially around January 6th. Trump has not necessarily gone after all as challengers. So he was really warm and welcoming to Tim Scott, actually.

So, you know, that was interesting to see how he just blasted DeSantis, but he was really kind to Tim Scott when he endounced. So that could be a function of just how strong or much of a threat Trump sees them to be. He's been going after DeSantis for a while. And the assumption has been because DeSantis is the only threat to Trump to really take him down. Pence is in third place, but his polling still isn't great. And he's definitely seen as less of a threat. It's hard to imagine Pence beating DeSantis and Trump right now unless the landscape really changes. So I think if Pence starts to surge in the polls somehow, then you will see those attacks ramp up.

If Pence fades into the mist kind of with his support, then I think you will see less and less of it. but I don't think Trump will be afraid to attack Pence at all. And you have to remember that one of these guys might end up being Trump's running mate. So, I mean, someone like Tim Scott, maybe he has him in mind. And that's why he's not attacking him. I think that would be a really strong running mate choice for Trump if Tim Scott was willing to do it. So there is that a secondary question of who would be a VP pick if Trump did win the general. I'm not sure that he's too worried about attacking a potential future VP pick.

But it's definitely going to be in his mind. So we've said it's already a crick. out of field, but we might not be done with candidates, Casey, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is looking to possibly announce as early as next week. Yeah, he's expected to announce as well. Of course, he is known for that kind of Trump-esque, tough guy style to say it like it is, thing, it's kind of how he's built his brand. But he very much became a, I don't know what the word is to say, but he really was doing Trump's bidding in the Trump administration for a while there. And it was really, in some ways, mocked for how he did that. But so he was really a big,

you know, on Trump's team for sure. And he's going to announce me, he will definitely spice up these debates. And that's the thing to watch for. I believe the first Republican debate is in August. Democrats aren't having any debates, but the first Republican debate, I believe, is in August. And that is going to be the biggest chance to really shape things up. Trump is hit or miss at these debates. I've watched all, I believe watched all of them. Sometimes he does well, but he's not always great. He's not consistently good. DeSantis is. is good with the facts, but he can be sometimes kind of a little flat. Christi is going to be really fiery, but is he actually relevant.

Pence is also pretty, can be flat. Vivek Ramoswami is really maybe the best rhetoritian of them all, but he doesn't have the poll numbers yet or the government experience, though. Who knows that that matters to Republican voters? So it'll definitely be an interesting debate to watch here towards the end of the summer, and not necessarily all of them will qualify for it, but it'll definitely be interesting to watch. Rhetorotician, Casey, I'm going to have to look that way.

word up. That's the SAT where I know you didn't pass SAT. Because there's really not a pass fail when it comes to the SATs case, unless something's dramatically changed since I took the SATs. Yeah, it's not on stone tablets anymore. That's a big change. Nice one. I'll give you that. We are out of time. Of course, the presidential campaign, particularly on the GOP side, is going to get hotter and heavier here as the weeks go by and we get closer to those first primaries. Thank you for your insight. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com.

For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McKalep. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.