Former Vice President Mike Pence made headlines this weekend—not for launching a campaign, but for finally admitting he likely won’t ever launch another one. In an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, Pence offered a low-key farewell to presidential ambition, essentially acknowledging what much of the American electorate—and most of his own party—has already come to terms with: his time has passed.
“I don’t see that in my future,” Pence said, when asked if he would run for president again. “But we’ll keep standing for everything we’ve always stood for.”
Translation? He’s pulling up a chair at the think tank table, possibly for good.
Rather than mount another futile bid for national office, Pence is now reinvesting in the world of policy advocacy—a realm where relevance can be extended long past the expiration date of political viability. His Advancing American Freedom initiative, launched in 2021, is the latest entry in Washington’s long line of ideological workshops masquerading as innovation hubs.
There’s nothing wrong, of course, with former leaders weighing in on the issues of the day. But let’s be honest: if think tanks were engines of real political energy, the Beltway wouldn’t be littered with the ghosts of forgotten platforms and policy blueprints. Pence’s retreat to this arena isn’t so much strategic as it is symbolic—a safe landing spot for a politician with nowhere else to go.
Pence’s 2024 presidential run never found oxygen. Despite name recognition, a solid evangelical résumé, and a four-year stint as Trump’s number two, his campaign flatlined almost out of the gate. Republican voters, particularly in the post-MAGA era, simply weren’t interested in what Pence was selling: a throwback to a pre-2016 conservatism that felt pale, timid, and outdated.
“I want to be a voice for conservative values,” Pence told Welker. “A champion of the conservative cause.”
Noble intentions—but let’s not pretend this is a man with a political second act in the making. He’s 65 now, and by 2028 or 2032, the conservative bench will be loaded with younger, sharper, and far more charismatic contenders. Whether it’s JD Vance, who’s already emerging as the ideological heir apparent, or others like Ron DeSantis, Tom Cotton, or Josh Hawley, Pence simply doesn’t command the base or the buzz.
If Pence’s vice presidency could be summed up in one phrase, it might be: he was there. He didn’t scandalize. He didn’t inspire. He didn’t electrify. He dutifully played the quiet loyalist—until the final days, when he found himself on the wrong side of the Trumpian mob for doing what the Constitution required.
That brief moment of moral clarity won him praise from institutionalists but cost him dearly among the grassroots. Since then, he’s been politically homeless—too Trump-adjacent for moderates, too constitutionally rigid for the MAGA faithful.
