Vice President Mike Pence flies to Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday as he prepares for his biggest role yet — becoming the face of President Trump’s reelection campaign.
With the president laid low by the coronavirus, his deputy is stepping up as campaign officials hastily rejig plans for the final month before Election Day with “Operation MAGA,” deploying Pence and the Trump family in a new front line.
Analysts wonder whether they can replace the charismatic presence of the campaign’s biggest asset and whether the next in line to the presidency should even be out on the road.
“A lot of people have questions about whether he should be out and about so much with the president in hospital,” said Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College. “He should almost be in a bubble.”
On Wednesday, Pence steps fully into the spotlight with the vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City, turning what would have been a sideshow into the week’s big political event.
A day later, he will headline rallies in Nevada and Arizona, a state where Biden has a lead of about four points, according to a weekend poll.
It means the man who has frequently been pressed into service in a supporting role — carrying out the sort of retail politics that Trump avoids, or acting as a bridge to some evangelical voters and the traditional conservatives who have never been entirely comfortable with a thrice-married reality TV star as their president — moves to center stage.
The result is unlikely to fill a Trump-sized hole. And it is a big step up for the more sedate campaigner who himself has joked in the past about easily being able to fill a room of dozens, said Tom LoBianco, author of Piety and Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House, even if some elements will be familiar.
“What’s kind of interesting about Pence in all this is how much his role hasn’t changed at all, despite myriad wild circumstances,” LoBianco said. “He’s still functionally doing the same thing he was hired on to the ticket for four years ago — plying conservative voters in Midwest states and massaging mega-donors.”
It could not come at a more difficult time.
Trump’s hospitalization keeps the national conversation on the pandemic, something aides wanted to avoid. They have spent weeks trying to refocus voters’ minds on law and order and the president’s handling of the economy.
Last week offered the latest in a bruising round of setbacks. Trump already faced intense scrutiny after recordings emerged suggesting he had talked down the threat from COVID-19 even as he acknowledged its severity in private, he was accused of belittling members of the armed forces, and the New York Times published details of the president’s tax returns suggesting he paid only $750 in federal income tax in the year he was elected.
The week ended with his campaign in crisis. Not only did the president test positive for COVID-19, so too did campaign manager Bill Stepien and Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
Adding to the sense of turmoil, Brad Parscale, who until recently worked as Trump’s campaign manager, was hospitalized after police were called to his Florida home.
Campaign officials insist they can adjust to losing their star candidate.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser, said he had no concerns about Pence adopting such an aggressive schedule with the president hospitalized and added that he was one of a number of key surrogates stepping up.
“We’re going to be fanning out all over the country following the vice president’s debate on Wednesday, also combined with a number of virtual events. We’re going to have our first big kickoff virtual event Monday night,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.
“So the president was excited to hear this Operation MAGA that we’re going to get everyone around the country and really pick up the – the banner and campaign until he can get back out there himself.”
