A normally ceremonial role in the process of certifying the Electoral College results could have major implications for Vice President Mike Pence’s political future, as some Republicans look to him to aid their long-shot challenges to the 2020 presidential election.
President Trump, the man who chose Pence as his running mate, seems to be one such Republican. “The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. Then early Wednesday, Trump tweeted that if Pence “comes through for us, we will win the Presidency.”
As president of the Senate, Pence will preside over Wednesday’s joint session of Congress counting electoral votes. Over 100 House Republicans, joined by at least a dozen GOP senators, plan to challenge the elector slates of multiple contested battleground states where Trump alleges widespread voter fraud tipped the balance in President-elect Joe Biden’s favor.
Pence already found himself in the awkward position of having to declare Biden the winner of the election. But in what is being viewed in some corners as a loyalty test, die-hard Trump supporters, encouraged by the president himself, are hoping he somehow can alter the outcome.
“I hope that our great vice president comes through for us. He’s a great guy. Of course, if he doesn’t come through, I won’t like him as much,” Trump said at a rally for the Republican Senate candidates in Georgia. “Mike is a great guy. He’s a wonderful man and a smart man and a man that I like a lot.”
When reports emerged that Pence told Trump he did not have the power to overturn the results, the president issued a statement Tuesday night through his reelection campaign decrying this as “fake news.”
“The November 3rd election was corrupt in contested states, and in particular it was not in accordance with the Constitution in that they made large scale changes to election rules and regulations as dictated by local judges and politicians, not by state legislators. This means that it was illegal,” Trump said. “Our Vice President has several options under the U.S. Constitution. He can decertify the results or send them back to the states for change and certification. He can also decertify the illegal and corrupt results and send them to the House of Representatives for the one vote for one state tabulation.“
Pence has also spoken of irregularities in the battleground states but has not gone as far as the president in casting doubt on the overall legitimacy of the process. “We’ll have our day in Congress,” Pence said in one of his own Georgia campaign swings. “We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence.”
“Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election,” his chief of staff, Marc Short, said in a statement. “The Vice President welcomes the efforts of members of the House and the Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people on January 6th.”
Still, that stops well short of pledging to intervene in any way as opposed to letting the process play out. The vice president is an elected constitutional officeholder in his own right and cannot be fired by Trump. There were some reports that Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who serves as president pro tempore of the Senate, would relieve Pence of his duties on Wednesday. This was later denied.
Biden as vice president ended up overruling objections by House Democrats to Trump’s Electoral College majority following the 2016 election. Al Gore did the same after his defeat in the 2000 presidential race, despite his private misgivings about the decisive Florida outcome and public disagreement with the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision in favor of George W. Bush.
Richard Nixon also had to preside over the session declaring John F. Kennedy beat him in the 1960 presidential election. Many Nixon supporters pointed to irregularities in Cook County, Illinois, and steadfastly maintained Kennedy stole the race.
Trump and many Republicans who would like to succeed him, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, are instead taking up the “stop the steal” battle cry. With the exception of California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer joining a protest of John Kerry’s Ohio defeat in early 2005, most challenges have fizzled for lack of Senate support, making it easy for vice presidents to rule objections out of order.
Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, said in 2001 she didn’t care that a senator hadn’t signed her objection to electoral votes for Bush. “The chair will advise that the rules do care, and the signature of a senator is required,” Gore responded.
Pence, widely seen as a loyal vice president to Trump, is also likely to want to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Republican senators who would like to run against him, such as Cruz and Hawley, are going to sign on to House objections. Trump himself will become eligible to run again with a defeat. The challenges are being discouraged by most GOP congressional leaders, as well as all Democrats, and are unlikely to be successful.
“I think he has to figure out what he wants to do when he grows up,” said Republican strategist John Feehery. “He can’t reinvent the ministerial wheel as the president of the Senate. He can’t make up new procedures and invent new ways to count the electoral votes. So, he has only a limited ability to shape the outcome. So, in my view, he needs to play it straight in the Senate. That would be the best for his political future and best for the country.”
Over the last four years, Pence has frequently served as Trump’s ambassador to a skeptical Republican governing class. He also reassured movement conservatives and evangelicals that they should remain in Trump’s corner. He will need to rely on that reservoir of goodwill if he incurs Trump’s wrath.
“Constitutionally, the VP has no choice but to follow it to the letter. Challenges made by House and Senate members is purely ceremonial and historical,” said Bradley Blakeman, a former Bush aide. “The president should be proud of his legacy. True to his nature, he went out as he came in, fighting for the principles he believed in. No one has taken Washington by storm like he has.”
“The real fallout will be: Have we as a nation learned anything?” Blakeman continued. “Will there be national, uniform voting standards and procedures? Will there be meaningful campaign finance reforms? Will social media be held to account? What will the Republican Party look like a year from now?”
