He Was Once a Favorite of the Right. Now, Mike Pence Can’t Get a Crowd of 15 to a Pizza Ranch.
He Was Once a Favorite of the Right. Now, Mike Pence Can’t Get a Crowd of 15 to a Pizza Ranch.
The former vice president has gone all out to win Iowa. But is anyone listening?
Highlights: To watch Pence on the trail these days is to see a man navigating the awkward, abrupt transition from being next in the line of presidential succession just four years ago to backbencher status among the Republican field. You can see him grapple with his own political mortality, working it out in public.
Since disclosing that he has just $1.2 million cash left, alongside more than $620,000 in debt, Pence’s presidential campaign has not said whether he has qualified for the third debate in Miami next month; he’s reached the polling minimum but not the donor threshold.
Nearly six months into his presidential campaign, and fewer than 90 days until the Iowa caucuses, Pence is not seeing massive crowds like his former running mate Donald Trump, or his fellow Midwesterner Vivek Ramaswamy, or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or even his longtime frenemy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Thirty folks at Penn Drug store in Sidney on a recent Friday morning; another 30 at the Olive Branch Restaurant in Greenfield that afternoon; 60 at a senior center in Glenwood the next day. Nor is he seeing anything but single-digit backing in polls. In Iowa, he’s currently averaging just 2.6 percent among Republican voters.
It’s difficult to find a political prognosticator who is not on his payroll who gives Pence any plausible shot at winning the nomination, a reality he acknowledged on the trail earlier this month. “The media has already decided how all this is going to end,” he told just 13 people at a Pizza Ranch in Red Oak.
This lack of support from the Republican base is substantially the result of Pence not cooperating with a fascist coup, and I don't think folks properly appreciate how incredibly ominous that is.
They'll definitely keep trying too.
As an outside observer, it seems they don't have anything else. What's their platform really? Just stuff that is not popular with the broad majority (like abortion or LBTQ+ rights) and being against whatever the Democrats are doing. That's just pathetic for one of the two biggest parties.
Yes, I don’t like Pence at all, and I want him to never win office again. But I don’t want the reason he loses to be because he didn’t literally overthrow the government. The incentives for future coups are absolutely terrifying.
Mike Pence is pretty far out there, as in he is pretty crazy on many points.
But that's not crazy enough for modern Republicans. Today you need to be bat shit insane to have a chance as a republican.That, and the Trump sycophants now want his head because they somehow believe that he had the ability to nullify the 2020 election and place Trump in the presidency, which he did not do -- for reasons that are blatantly obvious to anyone else.
You just gotta suck russian dick and you’re all set.
Yes, and that's pretty insane IMO. All the same "values" as a Russian totalitarian. I bet Russians are super happy with Putin's shitshow, and Republicans want the same for USA!
He was a nobody until trump came along. Then he stood up to trump. Now he’s a nobody without trump.
Surprisingly, no. Pence established himself in the House in years past. He had a good relationship with Capitol Hill until Trump disavowed him. Now he's nobody because the base despise him for his perceived betrayal.
I think Pence would actually do better if he went full Chris Christie and attacked Trump. Pence stopped a coup attempt by certifying the vote. If the guy would stand up, denounce Trump, and paint himself a hero then he's probably doing a lot better than he is currently. Instead he's sitting on the fence like a massive turd.
He could pull numbers just by hammering the facts: Trump tried to have him killed. It's a fact, a well known one, and Pence would maintain the moral upper hand as such. But Republicans are all weak greaseballs who can't be creative unless it's to take advantage of someone financially.
Yeah, it's truly disappointing. By the numbers Pence should be an excellent candidate for the right, he's been married (first marriage) to the same person since 1985, he's so religious he has documented life events that he's made decisions based on faith, he's a seasoned politician (Congressman, Governor, and Vice President), and while his politics are terrible I don't think he himself is a bad person.
For that last part, it's a pretty low bar. It's the sort of thought, "If he had the opportunity to kill someone without being caught, and it made him money, I don't think he'd do it." This is the same idea for many of our past presidents and candidates. If my (fictional) teenage daughter passed out for some reason and I had to run to get help, I wouldn't have any concerns leaving Mike Pence (Obama, Biden, George Bush, or Romney) with her for a while so I could get help. Guy might cheat on his taxes or tell a white lie or justified lie, but he seems like a passably nice guy (in the I'll cancel your right to an abortion, but if I get you pregnant I'll own up and take responsibility for you and the child kind of way).
I might be reading more into his character than I should, but add that to mine and your past statement and I totally agree he would be a more popular candidate.
I’m much more pessimistic than you all that that would have any sway. Why would that work when republicans actively like Trump so much?
Right, if only his campaign was as successful as checks notes Chris Christie's?????
I'm not saying he'd be beating Trump, but I think he wouldn't have doubts about qualifying for the primary debates.
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Was he ever a favorite of the right? I thought he was pretty unpopular as governor in Indiana.
His purpose was to get more religious crazies on Trump's side. Other than that, Republicans didn't like him.
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I think he was supposed to be Trump's handler, back when people thought that was possible.
They would have literally killed him if he didn't slip away.
Oh that would have been such a tragedy. Oh no Mike Pence being killed by the movement he helped create. Him being held responsible for his actions for once in his decades of life. Clearly a tragedy.
I always thought he was super popular with the evangelicals and that those folks are declining in numbers. The way I see it, younger conservatives aren’t as religious and are just spiteful towards the left; when you’re spiteful you want a loud mouth candidate who’ll legitimize your beliefs.
I don't think he was anyone's favorite. If I recall correctly he was going to lose in Indiana before T picked him up to use him.
Was he ever a favorite
Exactly what I was thinking.
Indiana resident here. He's as popular as warm drool.
god what a sad, beautiful ending
seeing him rot in public as everyone realizes in real time he is not what politics is anymore. no one wants a clean cut boring guy who's secretly gay and also evil. their time is over.
But who they do want is far more terrifying.
He and Blanche should hook up.
Why is it that the closeted Republicans are some of the worst?
Mike Pence is a piece of shit that clings to power like a horny dog clings to a leg.
And right now, theres no obvious power going forward to hitch himself to, Thanks to the lawsuits, trials and guilty pleas that are already coming out against Trump, and the rest of the Republican Party collapsing around him due to petty infighting, bullshit, and fanatical fascism.
So that leaves Pence hanging like a damp flag in a windless sky.
Limp, ineffectual, and below notice.
But hey, at least hes not doing active harm to the country at the moment, like wanting to use medicare to torture people straight... Again.
Hell even if Trump were to magically evade all this legal shit and get on the Republican ticket, what are even the chances he would pick Pence as his running mate again anyway? I seem to recall their political relationship going up in a ball of flames around Jan 6
WTF is a pizza ranch?
It's where the best pizzas are raised, free range and natural as god intended. The pizza wranglers are the most talented in the world, after all you have to be something special to be able to lasso a pizza when it's at full gallop!
You really haven't had pizza until you've had grass-fed pizza.
I love this post. “Natural as god intended.” LOL
Serious reply: Southeast/midwestern pizza buffet brand
With better chicken then pizza.
They also usually have Christian rock playing in the background.
Imagine one of those combined Pizza Hut/KFC stores from the 90's, except it's just one big combined buffet of pizza and fried chicken, and the whole place is cowboy themed.
I'm at the pizza ranch. I'm at the Pence event. I'm at the combination pizza ranch and Pence event.
I don't know but it sounds fun. If Mike throws in a bounce house, I'm there!
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Its a pizza buffet. You pay $25 to eat all the okayest pizza thats been sitting under a heat lamp for an hour that you want.
Asking the important question. I assume it's the ranch where they make all the pizzas for the entire world. Big Pizza doesn't want the public to know about it.
I think there’s a meeting every so often with elites called the Pizzaburg Group where they decide where the ranch is every year.
This is the most important question.
And he's unpopular for doing the right thing. The Trump team wanted him to help them steal the election and he didn't do it. Because of that the MAGAs dragged a full size gallows to the Capitol Building and started chanting 'hang Mike Pence'. I'm surprised he even has the nerve to campaign given how much the followers want him dead.
The thing is - he didn't even have the power to do what they wanted him to do, he couldn't have swung it even if he wanted to.
lol. Fuck every single piece of republican traitor filth.
Burying the lede.
What the duck is a pizza ranch and where can I find one?
I had never heard of it either, but the headline is still hilarious
I thought it was a user headline when I saw it on Fark earlier. Nope. The actual headline.
It's like a pizza bar. They have different kinds of pizza in a buffet. I think it's a Midwest thing.
I've seen the same thing in east Texas and western Louisiana too (twenty years ago though, haven't been in that region since)
I can't believe he hasn't thrown in the towel already. No one likes him on either side of the aisle.
He must really want to be president. He's also 64, this is pretty much the last chance. Can't play the long game like Paul Ryan who's sitting the mess out.
He has said he believes god told him he would become president, that it’s his destiny. Giving up would mean questioning his core beliefs.
Here's a video of a tortoise having sex.
I imagine the noise Mitch McConnell makes when masturbating is a mix of that and a tiny violin.
Although that one time he had a stroke on live television, he didn't make that much noise.
Just thought I'd share that with everyone. You're welcome!
He's polling so low that I didn't even realize he was still running. I thought I'd just missed him dropping out, the fact that he's still "on the trail" is just pathetic.
It’s highly egotistical and clueless of pence to think he had a chance. My main question about this article though was not about him, but wtf is a “pizza ranch”. That’s how exciting Pence is.
Republicans want to hang Mike Pence, not hang with Mike Pence.
lol “they’re saying boo-urns”
That image reminds me of this: https://i.imgflip.com/83dceq.jpg
At what point does Pence wake TF up? His base wanted to hang him. For following the Constitution.
It's the Trump kiss: everything he touches towns to shit
Thoughts and prayers.
Sorry, I must have misplaced the world's smallest violin. It was very little.
