Mike and Karen Pence are living their best lives. No, really. Almost a year after Donald Trump nearly got them murdered at the Capitol by a band of rioters trying to overturn the election, the former second couple is living in a nearly $2 million mansion in suburban Indianapolis. Mike Pence has a megawatt book deal in the bag with Simon & Schuster. And the two are traveling widely, with Mike Pence getting paid upwards of $100,000 a speech, according to Republicans who spoke on background.
In perhaps one of the most unlikely trollings of the former president, Mike Pence also remains a top-tier candidate for the Republican nomination in 2024. In a Politico/Morning Consult poll released last week, Pence dominated among Republicans who don’t want Trump to run again, pulling in 26% support, compared to 20% who would pick Florida governor Ron DeSantis if the primary were held today. A separate poll released last month by Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies found similar strength for Pence, with the former veep clearly leading the field if Trump doesn’t run, and still drawing 13% support if Trump does.
Which is why statements like his brush-off of the insurrection that almost claimed his life befuddle normal people, but make all the sense in the world to his inner circle and those eyeing the expansive 2024 shadow field. “I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administration’s failed agenda by focusing on one day in January,” Pence told Fox News’ Sean Hannity earlier this month. “They want to use that one day to try and demean the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020.”
Beyond the cackles of the Twitterverse about the cognitive dissonance behind Pence’s comments, Pence advisers and allies see a clear strategy: He’s running for president and making a buck for once in his life, until he can’t anymore. “You should not underestimate Pence—he has broad support among the big donors and in Congress, beyond just evangelicals,” said one longtime friend. “He’s incredibly ambitious. He’s a person who sees himself as the president. In the meantime, he’s making real money for the first time in his life. Running for president is also a great way of making six-figure speeches.”
The best explanation for Pence continuing to poll well among a group of people who, at least in part, likely see him as a traitor to their idol, is simple name recognition. As the man who stood loyally by Trump for five years, he reaped the regular attention (and frequent ridicule) of voters. Some are skeptical that his favorable numbers will hold up in the long term. “The only reason why he’s surviving in the field is because it’s so early in the cycle. After the midterms, which Trump will claim victory for, Pence is done,” said veteran pollster Michael Cohen (not the former Trump lawyer). “I feel badly for Pence, who did the right thing on January 6 and tried to keep Trump in line through the term. But there’s no way he’s going to be the next president.”
And for all the clear self-effacing, Pence continues to come up in the news, keeping his name in the mix. A raft of Trump books released in the summer revealed new details on the former president’s various attempts to undermine democracy—including his campaign to strong-arm Pence into voting against the certification of the 2020 election results. Evidently, it was a former vice president who ultimately convinced Pence he was powerless in that regard. If you had “Dan Quayle saves the republic” on your 2021-is-batshit-crazy bingo card, boffo for you.
David McIntosh, president of the conservative group Club for Growth and a supporter of both Pence and Trump, has been friends with the former since the early ’90s and remains close with the latter. If Trump decides not to run, he said, Pence is making all the right moves to take the lead. “I think that Mike’s on the right path in setting up his C4 [shorthand for a campaign-style nonprofit]. He’s out there in very select forums. He’s framed it as defending the Trump-Pence record. He’ll have competition. [Ted] Cruz is going to run again and has a machine; that’s an advantage he’ll have over the Pence crowd. DeSantis is everybody’s favorite, but he’s being careful because of his own reelection.”
In five years by Trump’s side, Pence was almost as notable for the stability of his own operation as the endless embarrassments he suffered. Longtime advisers Marc Short and Marty Obst are still running his incredibly tight-knit political operation. They brought back Paul Teller, a former aide to Pence dating back to his time in the House. And they added Chip Saltsman, a veteran Republican operative with experience running presidential campaigns in Iowa. They’ve set an aggressive fundraising goal of $18 million for Pence’s nonprofit, which ostensibly builds support for Republicans running for Congress and a raft of conservative policies, but looks an awful lot like a presidential-campaign apparatus.
Pence also continues to hold a strong base of support among evangelical voters and social conservatives. And that may be enough to carry him to the Republican primaries, even if Trump does run. That, of course, is the big if—the question forcing the 2024 GOP field to stick to the shadows. “I think everybody has to acknowledge that if Trump runs, he’s most likely to win the nomination,” McIntosh said.
“Balancing Trump with the rest of the Republican voters is becoming a high art,” said one former Trump campaign aide keeping tabs on Pence. “Look at [Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn] Youngkin: You can’t embrace Trump and you can’t ignore him. You need to have the best of both worlds, and with Trump, he won’t let you.”
Other Republicans see a simple ploy to make money in the ex-vice president’s recent maneuvers, and applaud Pence for finally cashing in after 20 years in public office. “Why else would someone be paying him $100k to come speak?” said a second veteran Republican strategist. “There’s no question the presidential race is driving his speaking fees.”
In recent months Pence has maintained a rapid-fire schedule, traversing the country and even going international. He and his wife flew to Alaska to assist Franklin Graham’s Christian charity outfit in July, ministering to wounded veterans. And he flew to Hungary last month to headline a meeting of right-wing Christian leaders and activists. (The rise of Christian nationalism in Hungary has infatuated conservative thought leaders in the U.S., not least one-man message machine Tucker Carlson.) A spokesman did not say if Pence was paid for the events.
Pence rallied support for Faulkner University, a Christian college in Alabama, at the start of this month. And he’ll receive a public service award from Ashland University at the end of this month. Spokespeople for both colleges declined to say how much they paid Pence to attend, but a speaking-industry veteran said it’s typical for former top White House officials, including former presidents, vice presidents, and secretaries of state, to pull in between $100,000 and $200,000 per speech.
A Pence spokesman declined multiple requests for comment for this story.
In March, Mike Pence signed on with the Worldwide Speakers Group, home to a number of former Trump administration officials parlaying their time in office into hard cash. Mike and Karen Pence are both listed as exclusive speakers with the group, along with former Trump defense secretary Mark Esper, former Trump national security adviser Robert O’Brien, and a host of other ex-Trump administration officials. Cashing in on the speaking circuit is old hat for politicos, and Republican strategists who spoke with Vanity Fair noted that remaining relevant as a possible White House contender helps keep fees high.
By comparison, other 2024 hopefuls pull down much less. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie earns between $35,000 and $45,000 per speech, according to a speaking-industry source. The source noted that speaking fees for politicos of all stripes are down significantly in the age of Trump, when conferences and colleges are shying away from controversial figures. It’s a far cry from just a few years before Trump stormed the national stage. Former first lady, senator, and secretary of state Hillary Clinton reportedly commanded $225,000 per gig heading into the 2016 election cycle. Even Trump himself, who floated his name as a presidential contender for three decades before diving in, apparently averaged $117,000 per speech. The one exception seems to be former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, who previously requested a speaking fee of $200,000 and the cost of booking a private plane, according to the industry source.
A Haley spokeswoman did not return a request for comment; Christie did not return a text message seeking comment.
The Pences have long flirted with top-tier earnings but have suffered financial setbacks throughout their lives, a phenomenon I detailed in my biography of the former veep. Ahead of his first run for Congress, the Pences lost nearly $1 million in a pair of bad investments through an old college friend. A few years later, during his campaign, Pence started paying his living expenses from his campaign account—something that would help sink his second congressional bid and keep him on the sidelines for close to a decade. Almost 20 years later, he lost upwards of $600,000 in stock when his family oil company went belly-up.
Pence used to joke that he was a beneficiary of government housing, a nod to a combined eight years of free housing at the Indiana governor’s mansion and the vice president’s residence. And Indiana Republicans have long noted that Karen Pence enjoyed the trappings of high society, even if she couldn’t quite afford them. The New York Times reported last week that State Department information indicated Karen Pence “wrongly took two gold-toned place card holders from the prime minister of Singapore without paying for them.” (The Pences’ lawyer rebutted, saying that she had received ethics clearance to do so from the White House.)
“This is the first time they’ve had two pennies to rub together,” said one longtime Indiana Republican. The Pences now live among the gated abodes of Hamilton County, Indiana, one of the wealthiest enclaves in the state, near shopping mall tycoons the Simon sisters, who are Democratic mega-donors, and other national power players. Now that they’re earning real money, some Republicans say they should give up the running-for-president bit and embrace the passive cash flow available to former top-ranking officeholders.
“Pence is doing all this penny-ante stuff. At what point does he go and say, ‘I need to be the president of Liberty University, or take over Rush Limbaugh’s time slot, or take over the Heritage Foundation?’” said one veteran Republican last week. (A day later the Heritage Foundation announced that Kevin Roberts had taken the top spot, closing that door to Pence—for now.)
At present, the Pences plan to carry on with their speaking gigs and presidential feints, which also means they’ll continue to dance around one of the darkest days in American history, and one of the strangest relationships between a former president and former vice president. Trump and Pence have largely gone their separate ways, though they still trade phone calls sporadically, advisers for both camps told Vanity Fair.
Pence, said one of his friends, is still angry that Trump placed his and his family members’ lives in jeopardy. Which may explain why the two seem to be skirting each other. Republican power brokers have been hosting cattle calls of 2024 hopefuls throughout the year across the country, but Pence and Trump have never appeared side by side. The next big event is in Las Vegas, for the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, one of the most powerful groups of Republican donors in the country and one that continues to set policy on the right, even after the death of mega-donor and RJC board member Sheldon Adelson.
Trump was invited to speak, but he declined, according to an adviser. After he found out that Trump was not attending, Pence agreed to headline the event, according to a Pence friend. An RJC spokesman did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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