Mike Pence might harbor deep-seated resentment toward Donald Trump for his handling of Jan. 6. But it’s Nikki Haley who really gets under the Pence camp’s skin.
Inside Pence’s orbit, staffers have begun privately complaining about a presidential contender who, like Pence, is polling in single digits — distressed that Haley is drawing what they view as more favorable media coverage than the former vice president receives. In recent weeks, they fumed about coverage that painted her as a fiscal conservative at a donor retreat in Florida and didn’t fully capture what they described as her tepid reception at CPAC, where Pence previously drew headlines for getting booed.
The animosity hasn’t quite reached the level of hostilities between Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar in the 2020 Democratic primary, and Pence staffers appear to spend more time thinking about Haley than vice versa. But the tension surfacing between them has all the makings of the first, real undercard feud of 2024.
“It’s like giving a shit about who wins the NIT tournament,” said Jeff Timmer, former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party and senior adviser to the Lincoln Project. “Everybody is watching the NCAA Tournament. To use a boxing metaphor, it’s like an undercard race that no one is even paying attention to. They’re all watching the heavyweight matchup between Trump and DeSantis.”
In any other political universe, Pence, a former governor and vice president, and Haley, a former governor and U.N. ambassador, might be part of that A-list matchup, too. But in a race that hinges on either Trump or DeSantis faltering, they are both now fully engaged in a high-stakes, low-return battle for what amounts to table scraps in the primary — jostling for third place and a position to lift off from if Trump or DeSantis fades.
How did this stellar plan work out for them in 2016?
This level of politics mystifies me. They both must know they have no chance and are actually trying to attain something else from this process. But there must be an easier way to get what they want. What kind of ego must you have to run for president under circumstances like this knowing that you are wasting everyone’s time and energy in such a quixotic quest?