Between two factions

Looking at Mike Pence's unique pitch to Republicans

Julia Azari and I have a piece up at MSNBC today examining Mike Pence’s fairly unique pitch as a candidate. Through his service as Vice President, he’s obviously closely tied to the Trump presidency, but he’s pitching himself as more aligned with the Reagan-Bush faction of the party. As we note, this is not just about factions, but eras. Presidential candidates have sometimes sought to define themselves as “newer” versions of their party brand (think Eisenhower’s Modern Republicans or Clinton’s New Democrats), although Pence is aligning himself with an earlier era of Republicanism. Best case scenario is that he’s something of a bridge between these two eras, but it’s probably more likely he ends up falling between the cracks.

Anyway, please read!