A new super PAC formed to support the all-but-certain campaign of former Vice President Mike Pence in the 2024 White House launched Tuesday, with a mission to “bring back” the former vice president “as he himself that person.”
And the establishment of the super PAC, titled Committed to America, is the clearest signal yet that Pence may be weeks away from declaring his candidacy for the presidency and jumping into a the increasing race for the GOP nomination. News of the super PAC’s formation was first shared by Fox News and nearly a dozen other news organizations.
“People know Mike Pence, they just don’t know him,” veteran Republican political consultant Scott Reed said. Reed will serve as co-chair of the newly formed super PAC.
And the new super PAC’s job is to make sure Americans get to know better the man who served four years as President Donald Trump’s loyal vice president, according to Reed, who manages GOP presidential nominee Sen. Bob Dole in the 1996 campaign and who directed the political operations of the US Chamber of Commerce for more than a decade.
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“This campaign will re-introduce 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.
Reed will be included as co-chair of former Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, who has represented parts of Dallas and surrounding suburbs for 16 years and heads the conservative House Republican Conference. Hensarling was one of Pence’s closest allies during their time together on Capitol Hill.
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Bobby Saparow, a veteran Republican campaign manager who guided GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s comfortable victory last November against Democrat challenger Stacey Abrams of Georgia, comes on board as Committed to America’s executive director. And longtime Republican communicator Mike Ricci, who served as communications director for then-House Speaker Paul Ryan and later for then-Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, will run communications for the new super PAC.
Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to socially conservative voters at a gathering of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition on April 22, 2023, in Clive, Iowa. (Fox News)
Officials with the super PAC said their initial emphasis will be on Iowa, whose caucuses top the GOP presidential nominee calendar, as well as New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, the other early voting states Republican primary and caucus schedule.
“We’re going to organize Iowa, all 99 counties, just like we’re running him for county sheriff,” Reed said.
Pence, during his years in Congress, as governor of Indiana and vice president, was seen as a champion for social conservative voters who played a large role in Iowa Republican politics.
A source familiar with the new super PAC said, “We have a pretty good handle on how many people will vote in this caucus. A large proportion of them are self-described evangelical Christians. Mike is committed to spending more time in Iowa. And we think his message and his track record will resonate with these voters.”
Another source familiar with the new super PAC said that while Committed to America will shine a spotlight on Iowa, it will also be busy organizing in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and vote second in the nominating calendar. And the sources added that “we’re not going to give up South Carolina because there are a couple of local candidates running,” referring to the former UN Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who launched her GOP presidential campaign in February, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is expected to declare his candidacy for president next week.
Super PACs, known as independent expenditure-only committees, are legally allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals and spend unlimited amounts to support or oppose candidates. in politics. Unlike traditional PACs, they are prohibited under long-standing federal rules from coordinating or contributing directly to a candidate or candidate’s campaign.
Haley and Scott have the support of super PACs, like former President Donald Trump, who is the clear polling front-runner today as he makes his third consecutive White House run. So is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who currently remains on the 2024 sidelines but, along with Pence, is expected in the next couple of weeks to declare his candidacy for president.
The pro-DeSantis super PAC, Never Back Down, is in the process of taking on some of the traditional roles of a presidential campaign, such as contacting voters and getting out the vote efforts in key states.
Committed to America also plans a similar mission when it comes to building more valuable voter contact, turnout and data programs.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia shakes hands with supporters after Pence headlined a primary eve rally for Kemp on May 23, 2022, in Cobb County, Georgia. (Fox News)
Saparow, who focused his efforts on the Georgia field last year, said “we’re going to do something very similar. … You’re going to see what we’re building with Gov. Kemp take to the national level.” period. So, we will also be doing an extensive paid voter contact program through Committed to America. We have all the confidence in the world that the results we got for Gov. Kemp we can duplicate for of the vice president.”
“There is a recipe and there is a roadmap to success that I have worked on before that I believe we can replicate with the vice president,” said Saparow.
Sources familiar with the super PAC would not share their fundraising and spending expectations, other than to say that “we will raise and spend as much money as is necessary to be successful and win.”
And they declined to share their strategy when it came to painting the differences between Trump and DeSantis, who polled in second place in the latest GOP presidential nomination polls, behind Trump but ahead of Pence and the other actual and potential White House. candidates.
Former Vice President Mike Pence greets customers at Simply Delicious Bakery in Bedford, New Hampshire, on December 8, 2021. (Fox News)
Pence will spend much of 2021 and 2022 crisscrossing the country, campaigning and fundraising for fellow Republicans running in last year’s midterm elections. And he also traveled extensively last fall and this past winter on a book tour for his memoir, “So Help Me God,” in which he highlighted the successes of the Trump-Pence administration but also emphasized Trump’s criticisms that generated a lot of headlines.
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Pence’s travels have taken him many times to early voting states. The former vice president has also strengthened his political team since last fall as he builds to launch a presidential campaign.
