Mike Pence's shadow campaign for the presidency begins to take shape

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Speaking to students at the University of Virginia on Tuesday night, former Vice President Mike Pence sounded like a man comfortable in his own skin.

He laughed his way past a questioner who wanted him to sign a Joe Biden tank top. And when asked what he would say to one of his children if they came out as gay, Pence replied, “I would look him in the eye and say, ‘I love you.’”

He was even humorous at times, flashing some of the dry, deadpan "dad humor" that his friends say they wish he would show more often. Asked about his old boss, Donald Trump, Pence merely said the former president was “one of a kind,” which drew knowing laughs from the crowd. He did not mention Trump again.

Pence did, however, call for more “civility” in politics, a somewhat awkward request given his years at Trump’s side. His own loyalty to Trump effectively ended in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, in which Pence, lambasted by the president for his refusal to try to overturn the 2020 election, fled an angry right-wing mob.

Pence’s visit to UVA inevitably recalled the fatal rally of white supremacists there in 2017. Trump infamously said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the rally, and Pence supported him while simultaneously attempting to reframe Trump’s remarks.

The former vice president made no mention of the white supremacist rally during his speech on Tuesday. But beforehand, according to CBS News’ Bob Costa, he visited the grave of Heather Heyer, the anti-Nazi protester who was murdered during the episode.

The UVA visit was quickly knocked by Democrats who sensed that Pence’s political career may not yet be over. Pence, after all, has spent months exploring a possible 2024 presidential bid and has polled relatively well for a Republican candidate not named Trump.

“Mike Pence can't rewrite his role in the Trump administration. Day in and day out, he stood shoulder to shoulder with Donald Trump, even defending Trump's defense of the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville in 2017,” Ammar Moussa, a Democratic National Committee official, said Tuesday.

For pretty much his entire career, Pence has been a tireless campaigner — for himself and other Republicans. He first ran for Congress in 1988, and then again in 1990. He lost both races and spent the ’90s on conservative talk radio honing his message before finally winning a House seat in 2000.

In Washington, conventional wisdom holds that he would have little shot at the GOP nomination given his falling out with Trump. But Pence, who hasn’t said yet whether he’ll mount a campaign, is checking all the boxes of a Republican interested in a White House run.

At the end of March, he recorded a podcast with Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, a staunch Trump ally. A few days later, Pence called in to “New Hampshire Today,” a local radio show in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

Earlier this month, his team announced in the Washington Examiner that he would be heading to Iowa on April 23 for a fundraiser with Iowa power broker and congressman Randy Feenstra. And he will cap off the month with a pair of stops in South Carolina, according to Fox News.

“What you see him doing is in line with who he’s been as a politician and a party leader over the years,” said one Republican close to Pence. “Lifting all ships has always been a part of Mike Pence’s attitude and approach to being a member of the party and of the broader conservative movement.”

Republican operatives tracking the 2024 shadow primary field say making early state visits before formally announcing a bid is essential. Pence is one of a number of Republicans making such moves.

“Coming here is helpful. It takes more than one visit to get people excited about you running for president,” said one Iowa Republican operative tracking the shadow primary. “Getting here and hearing tough questions, which I’m sure they have for him, will get people to lean to his side if he ends up announcing.”

If Trump runs again, many observers expect him to win the nomination easily. But if he doesn’t, Republican consultants have been eyeing Pence in the top tier of contenders, along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released at the end of March indicated that if Trump runs, he would win the support of nearly half of GOP primary voters; DeSantis and Pence would get 10% and 9%, respectively. But if Trump doesn’t run, Pence would narrowly lead the entire field with 23% support.

Unlike other would-be contenders like Sens. Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley, Pence hasn’t been drumming up much attention for himself, at least not intentionally. Nor does he necessarily need to right now: After four years on the national stage, Pence — who used to joke that Trump dispatched him to smaller venues because he couldn’t pack a room like Trump could — enjoys a level of name recognition most senators can only dream about.

But Pence did garner a bit of free advertising ahead of his UVA speech when its student newspaper, the Cavalier Daily, said he shouldn’t be given a platform at the school. The resulting minidrama may have given attendance a boost: There was a waiting list of 500 students for the speech, according to the Washington Post.

And for the first time in recent memory, Pence has been opening up more in his public appearances. Straddling the line between disciplined and boring, the former vice president, whose stiffness has been compared to that of a robot, doesn’t seem to mind engaging college students in a way that he has typically avoided in other venues.

At a University of Iowa speech in November, for example, he batted away a question from a student who asked, “Who told you to buck President Trump’s plan and certify the votes?”

Pence took a beat. “James Madison,” he replied, to appreciative laughter.

He looked at ease again Tuesday night, as a long line of students gathered to ask him questions. He sidestepped a question about his plans for 2024 but did say UVA swimmer Emma Weyant should have won the NCAA championship instead of Lia Thomas, a trans woman who has become a culture-war lightning rod in recent months.

But he seemed to open up even more when a student from Liberty University, Jack Skywalker, said, “Would you tell us a little more about your journey of faith and how this faith formed you in public service?”

“I was raised in a wonderful church family; you know, it was a grace before dinner and church on Sunday morning,” the famously pious Pence, who was raised Catholic but later became an evangelical Protestant, replied.

“But I lost interest in high school in faith, decided that I could go on my own steam but came up empty, felt hollow inside. … When I was a freshman in college, I made a personal decision to trust Jesus Christ as my personal lord and savior.”

He then said that his relationship with God “informs and strengthens and edifies all of what is most important in my life.”

After the speech, Skywalker, whose legal name is Baijun Jiang, said he felt Pence was thoughtful and open in his response.

“I look up to him; he’s a Christian,” Skywalker said. “I feel like if I was in the middle of Washington, D.C., I would be depressed. How do you survive, and with your faith and such positivity? So that’s why I asked that question.”