A super political action committee (PAC) launched efforts Tuesday to encourage former Vice President Mike Pence to run for president in 2024, and will serve as an alternative to frontrunners former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a co-chair of the super PAC told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Committed To America super PAC will be chaired by former Texas Republican Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Scott Reed, former campaign manager for Republican Kansas Sen. Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential bid, and serves as the first official step in Pence’s expected presidential launch, Reed told the DCNF. The “Pence-sanctioned super PAC” is solely tasked with presenting the former vice president as the “conservative alternative” to his former running mate and the Florida governor.
“Our goal is to position Pence as the conservative alternative to Trump and DeSantis,” Reed told the DCNF. “Pence is not going to try to out-Trump Trump — that appears to be the DeSantis strategy.”
Pence’s latest indication of whether he will run for president in 2024 came April 23 where he told CBS News’ Robert Costa that a decision will come “well before late June,” according to Face The Nation.
The super PAC will utilize an issues-based approach where it will highlight Pence’s stances on economic, social and foreign policy issues, according to Reed. Committed To America is currently focused on the Iowa caucus, where Reed believes Pence has a “built-in advantage” and “shared sensibilities” as the only midwestern GOP contender.
Reed is confident that Pence’s experience, character and conservative record will secure him the GOP nomination and the presidency in the general election against President Joe Biden, the co-chair told the DCNF. (RELATED: ‘Endangered My Family’: Pence Blames Trump For January 6 Riot At Gridiron Dinner)
“We’re going to reintroduce Pence to the country as his own man, not as the vice president, but as a true economic, social and national security conservative — a [Ronald] Reagan conservative,” said Reed. “Republicans are hungry to win and the stakes of this election couldn’t be any higher.”
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 04: Vice President Mike Pence speaks as U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump watch on election night in the East Room of the White House in the early morning hours of November 04, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump spoke shortly after 2am with the presidential race against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden still too close to call. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Committed To America tapped Bobby Saparow, the campaign manager for Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s reelection campaign, as the super PAC’s executive director, according to a press release. The super PAC will utilize Saparow’s success with Kemp in 2022, where he had to go up against Trump’s opposition, a Republican primary and a “nationally-funded Democrat” in Stacey Abrams, where he won by 7.5 points, according to Reed.
“We are taking what we did so successfully with Governor Kemp to the national stage, mobilizing an unprecedented voter contact program to win and make Mike Pence the next president of the United States,” Saparow said in a statement.
The Real Clear Politics (RCP) average for a national 2024 Republican nomination, based on polls conducted between April 21 and May 5, indicates that Pence is polling at 6% in a GOP primary field, with Trump and DeSantis garnering 55% and 20.7%, respectively.
Pence will speak alongside Trump and DeSantis at North Carolina’s Republican Party Convention in June, according to the state’s party chair Michael Whatley.
“The country is at a real crossroads, and Republicans need a strong, conservative candidate that can win,” said Reed.
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