Colwell: Mike Pence will be remembered as a patriot — and a loser

MAGA Republicans won’t forgive Mike Pence.

That’s why the former vice president and former Indiana governor will go down in history as a patriot, but will go down now in presidential primaries as a loser.

Polls show that Pence gained some Republican support for the 2024 presidential nomination after his forceful presentation in that first debate. In the respected Emerson College poll, Pence climbed 4 percentage points. Where did that leave him? At 7%.

Donald Trump dropped 6 percentage points in that poll after both the party’s first debate, which he skipped, and his booking in a Georgia jail. Where did that leave Trump? At 50% support among Republican primary voters. That’s far more than enough to win Republican primaries where multiple other contenders split up the remainder.

Pence also gained acknowledgement by debate opponents that he did the right thing on that riotous Jan. 6 at the Capitol. He will go down in history with laurels for following the Constitution and refusing to join in a plot to steal the election.

But that refusal also is why Trump’s still-solid MAGA base won’t vote for Pence, even if Trump starts slipping more and even though Pence was so loyal to Trump until being ordered to reject verified election results in an unconstitutional grab of power.

Trump wanted him “to put Trump over the Constitution,” Pence said, “and I chose the Constitution.”

Poor choice? Never to be forgiven? Wasn’t it more important to put Trump over Joe Biden, no matter what the voters said? And didn’t the “real” Americans vote solidly for Trump, who trailed only among those wanting to destroy Trump and America?

Yes.

That’s the answer of the solid Trumpster MAGA base to all those questions.

While Pence still could climb a little higher in future polls, his path to the nomination would have to include both getting much more support from traditional Republican conservatives and others no longer enthused with Trump and getting some support from the still-enthused MAGA base. Neither appears possible.

Of the contenders trying to catch Trump, Nikki Haley climbed the most in the Emerson poll, gaining 5 percentage points. That brought her to 7%, tied with Pence. Haley, however, won more acclaim from debate analysts and could have a higher potential now than Pence.

Others taking away support Pence would need include Ron DeSantis, still second in most polls, and even Vivek Ramaswamy, the petulant conspiracy spreader expressing willingness to let the kind Vladimir Putin spread his kindness over all of Ukraine.

And chances of Pence swaying any voters from the MAGA base is about as likely as a snowless winter in South Bend. They won’t forgive Pence.

The depth of that feeling in Indiana, his home state, was shown in a Change Research poll reported in Howey Politics.

Among Indiana Republicans in September 2020, that pollster found that Pence had a favorable rating of 96% — only 3% percent unfavorable.

Now, in an August poll, they found only 31% of Hoosier Republicans had a favorable view of Pence — 52% unfavorable.

What caused the huge swing against Pence among Republicans in a state that voted so strongly twice for the Trump-Pence ticket?

Was it that they suddenly decided to reject Pence’s solid conservative credentials going way back to his time in Congress? Did they turn against his opposition to abortion, gun controls, deficit spending and government regulation as too right-wing? Did they reject his criticism of Biden administration policies?

Or did they conclude that the fly distracting from the Pence presentation during a vice-presidential debate was right after all?

The difference is what he did on Jan. 6, 2021. The MAGA wing of the Republican Party won’t forgive Mike Pence.

Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: MAGA Republicans will never forgive, never vote for Mike Pence.