WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence’s 2024 campaign is ramping up its digital outreach to Republican donors to avoid the embarrassment of missing the party’s first primary debate next month.
Pence has one month to meet the Republican National Committee’s fundraising thresholds in order to appear on the stage on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. Failing to garner enough donors could be a death knell for Pence’s campaign, which has so far struggled to motivate donors and gain traction in the polls.
Worrying signs arose for Pence’s presidential bid last week when his campaign reported raising a mere $1.2 million in the second quarter, signaling a potentially embarrassing outcome for the former second-in-command who might not have the support to make it to the first Republican National Committee Debate, which stipulates each participant have 40,000 donors in order to participate.
Pence, as a former vice president with high name identification, occupies a unique position in this campaign. Pence is perhaps best known for his break with former President Donald Trump. Pence refused Trump’s demands to overturn Joe Biden’s White House win on Jan. 6, 2021. That led to a mob of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol chanting “hang Mike Pence."
On Wednesday, the former vice president paid for an email advertisement asking 40,000 people to donate just $1 to help him qualify. Pence’s campaign has declined to say how many donors they have.
In addition to the donor threshold, the RNC is also requiring candidates to register at least 1% in a series of polls. Pence is polling at 5.7%, which puts him in third place behind Trump and DeSantis, according to Real Clear Politics average of national polls. Pence is likely to meet the polling qualifications, but could struggle with the donor levels.
Candidates likely to qualify for the debate based on current polling and second quarter Federal Election Commission donor disclosures include Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Strategists say Pence could struggle to sway more voters his way. Pence, who has made his Christian faith a central tenet of his campaign, was booed by a crowd of evangelical voters being interviewed onstage by former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson last week at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa.
Pence said his team is “working around the clock” for him to make the debate stage where said he hopes he can face off against Trump.
“I just announced a month ago, so give me some time,” he told reporters last week.
Pence campaign adviser Devin O’Malley said they plan to run a “lean and nimble” campaign focused on Iowa. Pence gained 200 new donors just minutes after a TV interview with "Fox and Friends" on Tuesday, he said. The campaign is also seeking to draw in new donors with digital and social media advertisements, and TV and radio interviews, he said.
“We are seeing some momentum on the fundraising front,” O’Malley said. “The rate of unique donors has increased week over week, so we’re seeing positive trends.”
The Pence-allied super PAC, Committed to America, is seeking to reach “traditional” voters with mailed advertisements, spokesman Michael Ricci said. Reaching voters has a “strong success rate” but takes about a month to see the results, he said.
Gunner Ramer, the political director for the Republican Accountability PAC that is pushing for an alternative to Trump as the nominee, said voters in focus groups that his organization has conducted have little appetite for the former vice president, who he says is defined by his proximity to the party establishment.
“If you look at the way Mike Pence campaigns, it looks like its a campaign out of 2012,” Ramer said. “This policy-driven conservative platform is not what Republican primary voters want. They want someone who’s going to go out there and beat up on Joe Biden and own the libs and fight and stoke culture wars.”
O’Malley rejected the claim, stating that the campaign is “seeing the exact opposite,” adding that “voters are looking for a true conservative.”
