Former Vice President Mike Pence is dropping anchor in South Carolina as he prepares to mount a 2024 White House bid.
Pence is headed back to the Palmetto State in April and May as part of a deliberate strategy to build support with conservative activists and Republican operatives in the state that hosts the third primary on the GOP nominating calendar — and first in the South. Leading this effort is the plugged-in national Republican strategist Chip Saltsman as well as Josh Kimbrell, a state senator described as an “ambassador” for Pence in South Carolina, with other party insiders quietly assisting.
“Vice President Pence is galvanizing his relationships in South Carolina with the evangelical community, which is a strong move on his part to begin to possibly shore up a base for a possible presidential run,” said Dave Wilson, president of the Palmetto Family Council, a prominent conservative group that hosted Pence early last year when he chose South Carolina for his first public event after exiting the West Wing.
Wilson and his group are neutral in the unfolding 2024 GOP primary campaign.
Pence has traveled extensively since President Joe Biden was inaugurated a little over a year ago, visiting the crucial early caucus and primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively, as well as South Carolina. But Pence has treated the Palmetto State with special care compared to some of the other potential Republican presidential candidates, visiting multiple times. It’s a sensible strategy.
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Since 1980, the winner of the South Carolina primary has captured the nomination, except for 2012 when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich bested Mitt Romney. The state has a good mix of social and fiscal conservatives and national security hawks, who are influential in GOP presidential primaries and inclined toward Republicans like Pence. Indeed, Pence’s early attentiveness reminds some party insiders in South Carolina of Gingrich’s approach 10 years ago.
The big, looming unknown is Pence’s old boss, former President Donald Trump.
Trump might seek the White House a third consecutive time. If so, say Republicans in South Carolina, the primary crown is all but his. Former state GOP Chairman Chad Connelly “anticipates, in 2022, the floodgates to open” with ambitious Republicans who parachute into South Carolina, officially to campaign for other Republicans but really to “test the waters” for 2024. But ultimately, he said, “they’re all waiting to see what President Trump does” before making major moves.
For Pence, Trump presents an additional obstacle. The former president remains frustrated with his two-time running mate for refusing to acquiesce to his demands to overturn the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6 while presiding over Congress’s certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory. On Sunday, Trump issued yet another statement berating Pence for refusing to go along with this scheme and declaring it unconstitutional.
“Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome,” Trump said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!” In a recent interview, Trump supporter Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and organizer of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, said Pence needs to address this accusation more aggressively, or he risks permanently alienating a sizable segment of the Republican base.
“Mike Pence got caught up on this question of [whether] he [believed] there was wide-scale voter irregularity,” Schlapp said. “Some people are still confused on where Mike Pence is on things.” Schlapp’s recommendations to Pence include emphasizing his belief that there was significant fraud in the 2020 election and becoming a vocal opponent of the special committee in Congress that is investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
Pence has not had South Carolina all to himself. The state has been visited by other Republicans eyeing a 2024 bid, among them former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Plus, Trump is planning rallies in the state this year. And then, there is Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and incumbent South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
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Both Haley and Scott are interested in running for president and could prove formidable in their home state in 2024 depending on the field of candidates and how the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire shake out. But Pence supporters believe the former vice president possesses enduring political strengths that, at the very least, make him a top contender for the backing of Republican voters in the next South Carolina primary.
“He has a natural constituency here,” Kimbrell said. “He’s been well received.”
