“My future, I’m not looking at that,” the former vice president said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said he has ruled out another president’s run after failing to bid at the 2024 contest.
“I haven’t seen that, but we’ll keep up with everything we’ve always supported, and we’ll let ourselves handle the future,” said Pence, who served as vice president in President Donald Trump’s first term.
Pence said he wanted to play a role in shaping conservative policies, although he did not provide details.
“I want to be the voice of conservative values. I want to be the voice of policy and freedom enshrined in the US Constitution,” he said. “I want to be a champion of a conservative cause. That’s where I keep focused and we’ll let the future handle itself.”
When he dropped out of the race in October 2023, Pence was unable to attract enough key voters and donors to maintain his candidacy, which had suffered in the low single digits of the polls. Meanwhile, when he finally bowed, he had low cash for the campaign.
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Pence’s third quarter funding total for that year on October 15th was at the time that his campaign was $620,000 in debt and only $1.2 million in cash. It was far less than some better Republican rivals and was inadequate for the White House race.
While Pence, 65, has called for increased military aid to Ukraine and reduced welfare spending, he ran as what he characterized as a traditional social and financial conservative.
A few months later, he didn’t back Trump as a GOP candidate. Their relationship has worsened over a disagreement over Congress’ handling of 2020 vote counts on January 6, 2021 and a political fallout from the protest held outside the Capitol that day.
Earlier this month, Pence accepted the profile of John F. Kennedy with the Courage Award for what the JFK Library Foundation said was “to put his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential rights on January 6, 2021.”
Regarding the 2028 race, Trump said earlier this month that he “want to have a great four years of great years, ideally handing over to Republicans, the great Republicans who will move it forward.”
The president told NBC News on May 4 that Vice President JD Vance was “top the list” in terms of the possibility of becoming a Republican frontrunner. However, he pointed out that there are others in the GOP who can run for the country’s best office, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Reuters contributed to this report.
