Mike Pence seeks voters who like Donald Trump's policies but not his drama

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — When Mike Pence campaigns for president, he takes questions from everybody.

So, it was bound to happen sooner or later. It just happened to occur sooner, at a Pizza Ranch on a hot July evening during a Pence town hall, from an Iowa Republican named Luann Bertrand.

“If it wasn’t for you, we would not have Joe Biden in the White House,” she said, as everybody in the room went quiet, knowing this was the moment when Pence would have to confront a Donald Trump supporter who not only believed Trump’s tales about a stolen 2020 election but also his assertion that his then-Vice President Pence had the power to not certify the electoral results.

Her question: Did Pence ever secondguess himself?

Pence does not. Nor does he back down. In a calm but firm tone, he explains the Constitution to Bertrand and the vice president’s role. “Don’t take my word for it, go read the Constitution,” he says.

And then the kicker: “With all due respect, President Trump was wrong about my authority that day and he’s still wrong,” and, “I believe that by God’s grace I did my duty that day. No secondguessing.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence hits campaign trail with big challenge

The incident points to the unique and challenging nature of Pence’s campaign for the 2024 Republican nomination for president. He is the first former vice president in more than 80 years to run against the president under whom he served (Vice President John Nance Garner ran against President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 for the Democratic nomination).'

Pence's challenge is to do well in the 2024 Iowa Caucuses by winning over former Trump-Pence voters who still like Trump but have grown tired of the endless swirl of controversy that surrounds him.

Pence’s strategy surely depends on Iowa being his springboard to the top.

“I have great confidence in the people of Iowa," he said. "The road to the White House starts in Iowa. … And voters are going to choose the right leadership fitted to this time.”

Pence doesn’t mention Trump explicitly, but his argument to Iowans is that Trump is the past and Pence is the future.

“This election has got to be about the future," he said. "If we spend the next election talking about the past, we’re going to get four more years of Democrats in the White House.”

He is adamant that he can “turn this country around. But it’s going to take new leadership in the Republican party.”

Pence also contrasts himself with Trump — again, implicitly rather than explicitly — by talking about his deep Christian faith and his ability to calm down the political rhetoric and get legislation passed. At his campaign events, he often ends his policy pledges with the phrase, “So help me God,” and goes into detail about his decision in 1978 to accept Jesus Christ into his life.

“I like to tell people I’m a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” he said.

At another town hall in tiny Holstein, Iowa, Pence said he and his wife, Karen, didn't plunge into this race by ambition, but because they were called to serve.

Again, the implicit contrast with Trump emerges when Pence tells the Ida County Republicans: “There are two kinds of people in politics: There’s people who are driven and people who are called. I’ve lived in times of my life where I allowed my political ambition to run ahead of my values. The last 20 years has been an answer to call.”

Mike Pence tries 'Pizza Ranch' approach to campaigning

On the policy front, Pence goes the other way and touts the Trump-Pence accomplishments and criticizes the incumbent Democrat, saying in Sioux City, “I tell everyone that every crisis the American people are facing is manmade, and that man’s name is Joe Biden.”

Specifically, Pence said, “We can secure the southern border by finishing the wall and putting all the policies back into effect that we had under our administration,” “We’re going to end the war on energy and put American back on a path of energy independence,” and finally, he will confront China, saying, “We’re going to strengthen the American economy by demanding that China level the playing field and open their markets to what we grow and what we make. So help me God, I promise you that. Time to get tough.”

Pence has his work cut out for him before the Jan. 15, 2024, Iowa Caucuses. As he likes to tell reporters, “I’m well known, but not known well.”

His strategy has actually been dubbed the “Pizza Ranch” approach, in which he has town halls in the 71 Pizza Ranch’s across the state and connects to voters on a personal level. His campaign manager, Chris Saltsman, told one reporter, “You build allegiances in meetings of 50, not rallies of 5,000.”

And indeed, it’s in those meetings where Pence is at his best. Where he can be heartfelt, earnest and contemplative. Where he can connect.

In Holstein, he revealed how his father changed after coming home from the Korean War, and then looked at the crowd, and said: “I challenge each and every one of you to (reach out) to particularly those who have returned recently, just bring them next to you. Just look them up, get next to them, We’re going to end the scourge of veteran suicide in this country. So help me God, we’re gonna do it.”

And the people in Holstein cheered, for they believe him.

Bob Beatty has a doctorate in political science from Arizona State University and specializes in Kansas and national elections, with a special expertise on the Iowa Caucus and campaigning for president. He has attended and covered the national political party conventions in 2008 and 2016 and 15 presidential debates from 1996-2020.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Mike Pence hits Iowa campaign trail battling history and Donald Trump