Former Vice President Mike Pence’s 2024 campaign is already in debt and facing a potentially existential cash crunch.
The campaign told NBC News that its campaign finance filings will be released Sunday, reporting that it raised $3.3 million in the third quarter, including $1.2 million in cash on hand and $620,000 in debt. Pence himself poured in $150,000 from his personal funds, the campaign said.
Mr. Pence’s numbers make it clear that his campaign is under severe strain, operating in a very different financial situation than his rival’s, and that Mr. Pence’s ability to continue to compete in the Republican primary is in jeopardy. is raising doubts. His mounting debt, in particular, has long portended that his presidential campaign will run into trouble and potentially end.
The last Republican presidential primary bears eerie similarities to this moment eight years ago. Then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s campaign reported just under $1 million in the bank and just under $161,000 in debt at the end of the third quarter of 2015. In that election cycle. He dropped out of school a few weeks later.
The next campaign finance report filed by Mr. Walker’s suspended campaign revealed how quickly things could spiral downward. The report covered the last three months of 2015 and showed his campaign had to deal with more than $1.2 million in debt. It took Walker a year to raise the money to pay off his debt.
Mr. Pence’s financial position this year compares unfavorably with that of his former Washington rivals. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s campaign announced it ended the third quarter with $9.1 million spent on the 2024 primary, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign said: He announced that he had deposited $5 million in the bank. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a big spender, ran for office in 2024 with deep federal campaign cash accumulated over years in the Senate.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump’s campaign said it has nearly $36 million available for the 2024 primary. All of these numbers are based on campaign announcements and cannot be independently verified until the campaign files a report with the Federal Election Commission, which is expected to be filed by Sunday.
Meanwhile, the $1.2 million that Mr. Pence has in the bank limits what his campaign can do. And at least $200,000 of that money won’t actually be available for use during the primary campaign, only in the general election, according to an NBC News analysis of his second-quarter financial report. That’s because it was raised from donors who had already given the maximum amount to the initial campaign.
It’s unclear how much of the money Mr. Pence raised in the third quarter won’t be available for the primary campaign. The campaign declined to provide further details.
Pence’s campaign funds are pouring in all at once in preparation for the third Republican primary debate on November 8th. The Republican National Committee’s criteria for candidates includes amassing 70,000 individual donors to qualify for the stage. Mr. Pence faced a scramble to appear in the first debate and reached the debate threshold several weeks ago.
Mr. Pence’s campaign has not disclosed the number of donors it has received so far, nor has it commented on Mr. Pence’s position on the third debate standard. But the low amount means Pence could face another serious uptick to participate.
Pence has campaigned on “traditional conservative values” and has stood as a champion of those values, but at times has clashed with Trump, his former vice presidential candidate. Sometimes I did. He has regularly spoken out about fulfilling his duty and upholding his oath to the Constitution on January 6, 2021, when he certified the 2020 election results despite pressure from President Trump. He has preached about the need for a strong and assertive America on the world stage, criticizing comments by President Trump and others on issues such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and abortion policy.
There may have been a time when Republicans admired Pence’s Reagan-era principles. Instead, his poll numbers have stagnated and his party appears to have steered in a different direction.
