Pence's next act
Plus: What Pete Buttigieg said about running for Michigan governor in 2026.
NEW: Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch raised over $1 million combined at a pair of fundraisers in Evansville in Indianapolis in a span of seven days as her campaign for governor heats up, according to her campaign.
Hours after announcing he wouldn’t endorse Donald Trump for president, Mike Pence huddled privately in Dallas with Texas moneymen such as Ross Perot Jr. and the billionaire conservative Harlan Crow.
The former vice president had traveled there to warm up possible donors for his nonprofit policy shop aimed at advancing conservative ideals, according to a person familiar with his itinerary and granted anonymity to speak freely.
It was a return to form for a man who has long prized conservatism over the populism of Trump, even if he accommodated its rise.
Long before he became Trump’s hype man, Pence was an Indiana governor who sided with what he called “the Reagan agenda.” In April of 2016, the last time he opted not to endorse Trump, he backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in Indiana’s decisive GOP May primary, mentioning Cruz’s advocacy of “less government, less taxes, traditional values and a strong military.”
Eight years later, almost to the month, Pence again embraced Reaganism over Trumpism, spurning his former running mate — a move without precedent in American political history.
He and Trump, Pence would say, had “deep differences.” There was some historical symmetry at play, too: The issues he prioritized in 2016 when backing a different candidate proved to be the same ones driving him away from Trump in 2024.
Pence’s decision is now the stuff of Democratic and Never Trump fanfic-turned-reality. Both the Biden campaign and Republican Voters Against Trump are circulating digital ads featuring Pence’s words. For the next week, RVAT is splashing Pence’s non-endorsement across billboards in Atlanta.
But Pence’s move is also the latest sign that Trumpism is now permanently and irrevocably divorced from its initial marriage of convenience with the Reaganism he has long espoused, and that he promoted whenever possible during Trump’s first term in office. Pence provided the ideology to Trump’s id, and now the two are consciously uncoupling.
Welcome back to IMPORTANTVILLE. It’s a big week in Indiana politics, with two gubernatorial debates happening, and Donald Trump Jr. set to rally with Senate candidate Jim Banks in Franklin.
DOGPILE ON BRAUN
When Sen. Mike Braun opted to leave a Zionsville fundraiser for his gubernatorial campaign and return home to Jasper, he ended up missing a key spending package vote, leading all five of his GOP rivals to roast him on X, formerly Twitter.
It comes at a dicey time for the frontrunner, with two big debates scheduled on Tuesday March 26th at 7 p.m., and Wednesday, March 27th at 6:30 p.m.
Braun’s campaign defended his absence, saying after Braun decided to head to Jasper rather than catch a late flight, “Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer then decided to hold the vote on Saturday at 1:51 AM, which Braun would’ve opposed.” His campaign pointed to information from leadership aides suggesting senators were still haggling over amendments as late as 12:30 a.m. But that doesn’t change that 98 other senators expecting legislative business to happen and being present.
He also dealt Indiana Democrats an attack line against him if he wins the primary.
“Someone should tell Mike Braun that if he doesn’t want to do his job, he can just retire — not run for yet another office and waste Hoosiers’ time,” said Indiana Democratic Party Chair Mike Schmuhl. “Mike Braun would rather collect checks from wealthy extremists than do his job. What does Mike Braun think would happen to most Hoosiers if they missed the most important part of their job to have dinner with friends? It’s simple — they’d be fired.”
WHAT’S NEXT: Look for campaigns to go back through Braun’s vote history and juxtapose them with his past fundraising calendar in the coming days.
IMPORTANTVILLE READS
“Hoosiers prepare to host total solar eclipse,” by LESLIE BONILLA MUÑIZ
The day after the August 2017 total solar eclipse spanned the country, Ginger Murphy got a phone call. The Chicago-area caller wanted to reserve 40 rooms at a Hoosier state park lodge for an eclipse due to darken skies above Indiana nearly seven years later.
“I went, ‘Huh?'” said Murphy, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) deputy director for state parks. “At that point, we weren’t even thinking about it.”
But that’s changed.
State and local entities alike have since joined forces to pull out all the stops for an eclipse — featuring a staggering 4 minutes of totality — that could bring up to 600,000 people to Indiana.
IMPORTANVILLE SOUNDBITE
From Axios Local Detroit
"I don't mean to dodge, it's just that this job takes about 110% of my intellect and attention and I don't know if I'll run for office again or not. But I do really care about the future of the state that I've married into, and adopted, and I think Gov. Whitmer is doing a fantastic job."
— U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who now calls Michigan home, answering a question from Axios' Mike Allen on Tuesday about whether he plans to run for Michigan governor in 2026.
