The Atlantic

Mike Pence Is Trying to Send a Message

The former vice president is doing political damage control for his party. It seems like too little, too late.
Source: Matt York / AP

You may not have predicted that Mike Pence—a man who once praised Donald Trump 14 times in a span of three minutes—would ever publicly defy his former boss. But 2022, it seems, is a brave new world in Republican politics.

In the Arizona GOP primary for governor, Pence is, in essence, campaigning against Trump. The former vice president has endorsed Karrin Taylor Robson, a former developer and land-use consultant, whose main opponent is the “Stop the Steal” candidate Kari Lake. Yesterday, the two men both made appearances in the Grand Canyon State: Pence praised Robson at small-scale events in Tucson and the Phoenix suburbs; Trump headlined a rally alongside Lake in Prescott Valley, where he babbled about his usual array of political and personal grievances before thousands of devotees.

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