As Pence steps away from candidacy, Trump remains strong

LAS VEGAS — Mike Pence has a resume most White House hopefuls would dream of. A congressman. A governor of a big Midwestern state. A one-time vice president. In normal times, someone with such credentials would be well-positioned to win their party’s presidential nomination. But these are not normal times, and Pence’s decision to end his campaign more than two months before the first contest in the Republican primary underscores the extent to which the party has been subsumed by former President Donald Trump. Pence made his surprise announcement Saturday in Las Vegas, where he and other GOP presidential hopefuls spoke at a summit sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition. But in many ways, Pence’s campaign ended years before it officially began, in the days leading up to Jan. 6, 2021. That was when Trump, desperate to hang onto power, became convinced that Pence, as president of the Senate, could somehow reject the election results — a power the then-vice president did not possess. After spending four years as Trump’s loyal defender, Pence was suddenly cast as a traitor, targeted by rioters who stormed the Capitol. “From the very beginning, I think his supporters knew that the challenge was going to be some of the hardcore Trump supporters were never going to forgive him for upholding the Constitution on Jan 6,” said Art Pope, a GOP donor from North Carolina who supported Pence’s campaign. “On the other hand, there were a group of Americans who were never going to forgive him for being in the Trump administration to begin with.” Pence tried to thread what often seemed like an impossibly fine needle. He ran on the record of what he fondly referred to as the Trump-pence administration while also criticizing his former boss. He accused Trump of abandoning conservative principles on issues such as abortion and of putting himself above the Constitution to stay in power. During his campaign launch event, Pence addressed Jan. 6 headon, defending his actions and saying Trump disqualified himself during that period.