Mike Pence’s 2024 campaign is on the rocks: The former vice president draws a paltry crowd of a few dozen in Iowa and has just $1.2 million in cash reserves

Mike Pence’s 2024 presidential campaign is facing financial problems and a lack of enthusiasm on the ground in Iowa, raising questions about how long his bid can continue.

New documents this week showed that Pence ended September with just $1.18 million left in his campaign account, a strikingly low number for a presidential contest and far less than his rivals.

Pence’s former running mate Donald Trump, by contrast, ended September with $37.5 million on hand, and leads all his rivals in the GOP nomination race by at least 40 points in national polls.

In the meantime, Politics published a scathing article Saturday documenting Pence’s struggles to draw crowds in Iowa, where several of his recent events have drawn about 30 to 60 people.

During a Pence stop at a Pizza Ranch in Red Oak, only 13 people were present, including a Republican voter who rambled on about several conspiracy theories, including that President Joe Biden is a “hologram.”

The Pence campaign’s latest financial filings show he is still struggling to meet donor requirements for the Republican Party’s third primary debate on November 8.

His campaign also has $621,000 in debt, more than half the money he had left.

People close to Pence say he now faces a choice about how long he will stay in the race and whether remaining a candidate could potentially affect his long-term standing in the party given Trump’s dominant lead.

Pence may be able to hold out until the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses by continuing to visit the state’s famous Pizza Ranch restaurants and campaigning on a shoestring budget.

But he must now weigh how that course would affect his desire to remain a leading conservative voice, said the people, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to share their unvarnished views.

“For Pence and many of the others, you have to start looking and saying, ‘I’m not going to take on substantial debt if I don’t see a path forward,’” said former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who opposed Trump in 2016 but left abandoning his bid after concluding that “the Trump train had left the station.”

Pence is moving forward for now. He held a Newsmax town hall in Iowa on Tuesday night and fundraisers in Cleveland, Philadelphia and Dallas this week.

He spoke Friday evening at the Republican National Committee’s fall retreat and will appear next week at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas — all opportunities to pitch deep-pocketed donors to keep his campaign afloat.

The super PAC supporting Pence is also continuing its efforts by raising money and conducting an extensive voter campaign, knocking on nearly 600,000 doors and counting.

The campaign is also working aggressively to reach the 70,000 donor threshold needed to qualify for next month’s debate and expressed confidence they could get there if they tried — even as others remain skeptical that he can make it.

“I know it’s an uphill climb for us for a lot of reasons, some of which I understand, some of which I don’t,” Pence acknowledged as he spoke to reporters in New Hampshire last week after formally registering for the state’s first meeting. the nation primarily.

Still, some in Pence’s inner circle believe he still has significant contributions to make in the primaries, especially after the Hamas attack on Israel brought foreign policy to the forefront.

Pence has argued that he is the most qualified candidate to tackle foreign policy issues, saying in the August debate that “now is not the time for on-the-job training.”

Those close to Pence say he is experiencing a renewed sense of purpose, given his warnings throughout the campaign against the growing tide of isolationism in the Republican Party.

Pence has used the war between Israel and Hamas to decry “voices of appeasement” within the Republican Party, which he says embolden groups like Hamas.

Another person warned that Pence, a devout evangelical Christian who sees the campaign as a calling, could respond differently than other candidates in his position if he feels called to stay in the race.

If he decides to leave, Pence would have a potential platform in Advancing American Freedom, the conservative think tank he founded after leaving the vice presidency.

In the meantime, the campaign has been working on cost savings, including by having fewer employees travel to events.

Regardless of what he decides, the predicament facing the former vice president underscores how dramatically Trump has transformed the Republican Party.

In many ways, Pence ran to lead a party that no longer exists.

He has established himself as the traditionally most conservative candidate in the field, following the example of Ronald Reagan.

But many of his positions — from maintaining U.S. support for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invasion to proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare — are out of step with much of his party’s base.

He also faces the fallout from January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters — some of whom shouted “Hang Mike Pence!” chant. – stormed the Capitol, sending him running for his life.

Trump tried to falsely convince Pence and his own followers that the vice president somehow had the power to overturn the election results.

Pence has repeatedly been confronted during his campaign by people accusing him of betraying Trump, who continues to promote falsehoods about the 2020 election, often several times a day.

But Pence has also faced the same challenge as every candidate in the field not named Trump, an extraordinary figure whose grip on the party has only increased as he has been charged with dozens of crimes.

“If something big doesn’t happen on November 8, the primaries are over. Some argue that this is the case now,” said Walker, who entered the 2016 Republican primary as the front-runner but ended his campaign in September 2015, months before a single vote was cast, amid mounting debt.

An AP-NORC poll from August found Republicans divided on Pence, with 41 percent having a favorable opinion of the candidate and 42 percent an unfavorable opinion.

Nationally, a majority of American adults (57 percent) view him negatively, while only 28 percent have a positive opinion.

Some hope Pence doesn’t give up. In Iowa, Dallas County Republican Party Chairwoman Kelley Koch said she felt Pence had struggled to define himself outside of Trump and that many remained skeptical of his actions on Jan. 6.

But she said after the attack on Israel, with all eyes now on the Middle East and a new war, Pence could have a moment to make a breakthrough.

“He’s such a proponent of foreign policy. That is one of his strengths. And he has that against many of the new rookie candidates in the race. He should run on that,” she said. “I would think this would just be a big trumpet that would set the stage for Mike Pence to step up and grab the mic.”