Former Vice President Mike Pence will take a major step Tuesday towards entering the 2024 GOP presidential primary with the launch by allies of a Super PAC operation that would stand ready to help him if he does, as expected, enter the field later this year.
The group, Committed to America, sources familiar say, will be run by Scott Reed, the former campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, and former Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). This serves as one of the major steps toward an eventual announcement of Pence’s possible bid for the presidency.
Reed said in a written statement, “The country’s at real crossroads and the Republican Party needs a strong conservative candidate who can win. Pence has the experience, the unparalleled character, communication skills and the conservative credentials to win both the nomination and a general election.”
Bobby Saparow, who led Gov. Brian Kemp’s most recent reelection campaign as campaign manager, will be the executive director of the super PAC.
Saparow said:
We are going to do something very similar … You will see that what we built out with Gov. Kemp is going to be taken to the national stage. So we will also be doing a very extensive paid voter contact program through Committed to America. We have all the confidence in the world that the results that we were able to garner for Gov. Kemp we can duplicate for the vice president.
He added, “There is a recipe and there is a roadmap of success that I’ve worked on in the past that I believe we’ll be able to replicate with the vice president.”
While Pence himself has not yet formally entered the 2024 presidential race, this move is the most serious sign yet that he is likely to jump into the field soon. Pence previously told Breitbart News in an interview in his home state of Indiana at the NRA annual gathering that he was “weeks not months” away from a final decision on a 2024 campaign.
Mike Ricci, who has served as a communications director for then-Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and as Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R-MD) communications director, will lead communications for the organization.
Reed believes that Iowa will be the most important state for Committed to America.
“This campaign is going to reintroduce Mike Pence to the country as his own man, not as vice president, but as a true economic, social, and national security conservative — a Reagan conservative,” Reed said.
Sources familiar with the super PAC believe that Pence may have an advantage in Iowa as Pence also hails from Indiana, another midwest state, and shares midwestern sensibilities that would garner support from self-described evangelical Christians.
“We’re going to organize Iowa, all 99 counties, like we’re running him for county sheriff,” Reed said.
“People know Mike Pence, they just don’t know him well,” Reed added.
Committed to America will also run a ground game similar to what the Kemp super PAC did and what Never Back Down, a super PAC backing Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) potential bid for president, has done. The group will also have an extensive voter contact program.
The super PAC may also hit former President Donald Trump over his actions on January 6, while also promoting Pence’s pro-life stance, desire for entitlement reform, and his status as a “national security” conservative, including his support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
Committed to America also seeks to highlight Pence’s status as a classical, limited-government conservative, when other candidates, declared and undeclared, such as former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), have taken a more populist approach towards governing.
Pence told Boyle that Indiana has become a model for other states as places such as Florida, Ohio, and other states have become more conservative, “I think it’s the consistent conservative message and then saying what you mean, meaning what you say, delivering on the promises, and the other piece of it is just the Democratic Party has been captured by the radical left.”
He added, “Literally, the policies at home and abroad are so far out of step with everyday Americans that I think we’ve got a historic opportunity in 2024 for a realignment of the direction of this country and states across the country and in our nation’s capital as well.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.