The curious case of Mike Pence in Iowa
Mike Pence could give marital advice.
But not for the reasons you think.
He has much in common with long-loyal spouses spurned for the fresh, flashy new love.
No candidate I've covered in a quarter century came to the Iowa Caucuses as a better political love match for the socially conservative voters who are so defining here than Pence, the former GOP vice president who has straight-arrowed through his political career with those steely eyes affixed to what used to be the conservative bullseye — an honestly held and relentless pro-life stance on abortion and indisputable credentials on the debt and deficits and the firmament of conservative life in the Midwest for most of the last century.
Make a list of the Republicans most responsible for the nation's swing to a decidedly more anti-abortion place (in policy, not polls) and Pence is on it. He was there in Trump's ear for the Supreme Court nominations and roused the faithful from the statehouse in Indiana and the Congress. It's one of the founding issues for the Family Leader. But deliverables in American government just don't count for much in the flash-bang politics of provocation and recrimination.
A former congressman and governor from an ag-producing state, one with a Carroll County full of hogs, just like Iowa, Pence also talked with me fluently at an event about farm-country consolidation.
Pence addressed consolidation in the meatpacking industry. Four companies — Tyson, Cargill, National Beef and JBS — have a stranglehold on beef supply, for example.
He was a perfect fit for Iowa Republicans. Until he wasn't.
My neck strained from head-spinning incredulity last July in Des Moines as the Family Leader crowd in downtown Des Moines booed Pence -- this on the same day, within minutes actually, of Gov. Kim Reynolds signing the six-week abortion, an historic win for two generations of conservative trench work in Iowa, and indeed in American, politics.
The moderator, Tucker Carlson, went hard on Pence for supporting funding or Ukraine. The audience booed.
Now we have news that Pence won't endorse his old boss, former President Donald Trump. The Indiana Republican says he just can't do it. For now. These things change.
“Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. That’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign,” Pence said on Fox News.
In the 2022 interview I did with Pence, the talk-radio host sought to portray himself as a reliable, from-the-heart conservative, an anti-abortion voice with economic and cultural views informed by former President Ronald Reagan, whom he referenced in the interview.
When I asked if he viewed former President Donald Trump as more of a “transactional conservative” Pence said, “It was the greatest honor of my life to serve as vice president with President Donald Trump. We rebuilt our military. We revived our economy. We appointed conservatives to our courts at every level. We stood with our allies and stood up to our enemies.”
A ringing endorsement. Until it wasn't.
(Douglas Burns, a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please follow other writers on the roster below.)
Pence has more backbone than most.His opposition to DJT in 2024 and correct course of action, January 6, 2021 will get him high marks in history.
This is probably one of the biggest political stories of this cycle, Doug. Glad (and not surprised) that you jumped on it with this insightful column.