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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told his allies late last year that he’d heard talk about Republicans releasing some kind of legislative agenda ahead of the midterm elections, but he was “adamantly“ against the idea. The Kentucky Republican added a month later that he’d let everyone know what his party would do with power after the GOP wins, not before.
To McConnell’s chagrin, Republican Sen. Rick Scott ignored those directions and unveiled a controversial blueprint of his own, which included proposed tax hikes. As the Associated Press reported, former Vice President Mike Pence is taking a similar stroll down the same path.
Former Vice President Mike Pence has unveiled a new policy platform for Republicans ahead of this year’s midterms elections, offering a framework for candidates — and possibly himself — ahead of a potential 2024 presidential run.
The 28-page blueprint (pdf) was released this morning by the Republican’s non-profit group called Advancing American Freedom (AAF). At no point in the “Freedom Agenda” document did Pence or his team literally describe this as the basis for his future national candidacy, but the blueprint isn’t exactly subtle.
It’s also not especially creative. If I were to ask a random collection of people who follow American politics relatively closely to guess what’s included in Pence’s plan, they’d probably come up with the key elements without much trouble. It will not surprise you to learn, for example, that the Hoosier supports tax cuts. And oil drilling. And abortion restrictions.
Pence wants to build a wall along the U.S. Mexico border, keep transgender athletes out of sports, make it more difficult to cast absentee ballots, and “confront communist China.”
Politically innovative, it isn’t.
So why does it matter? In part because Pence, like Scott before him, is giving Democrats another target: McConnell may want the 2022 cycle to be a referendum on the status quo, but high-profile Republicans keep creating a dynamic in which voters will have a choice between competing visions.
It also matters to the extent that it serves as a reminder that when it comes to new solutions, Pence is warming up Trump’s failed ideas and adding some culture-war red meat.
But also of interest is whether, and how many, Republican voters want to hear this message from this messenger. It was, after all, just a couple of weeks ago when the former president, looking ahead to the 2024 race, effectively said that Pence wouldn’t be his running mate for the third consecutive cycle.
“I don’t think the people would accept it,” Trump said.
It’s difficult to say with confidence whether his assessment of the GOP base is correct, but Trump’s rhetoric reinforced a larger point: Pence doesn’t just have to persuade Republicans that his stale ideas have merit, he also has to convince GOP voters not to blame him for Trump’s failed coup.
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