The former vice president wants to climb back to relevance as a keeper of the flame for traditional conservatism. The Trump camp calls him “Judas Pence.”
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Former Vice President Mike Pence said he won’t endorse Donald J. Trump in November and plans to use his political group to defend Reagan-era Republican policies.
Mike Pence could not have asked for a more welcoming audience. For nearly 30 minutes, the man who served as Donald J. Trump’s vice president was repeatedly applauded as he offered a vigorous affirmation of his support for Israel at a conference of mostly conservative Jewish leaders in midtown Manhattan.
He barely paused when his questioner, Zvika Klein, the editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post, asked Mr. Pence, an evangelical Christian, to lead the room in prayer for the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7. “It would be my great honor: Let us pray,” he said.
His invocation drew applause and shouts of “Amen.”
In the seven months since he dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, in the face of inevitable defeats in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Pence has been seeking out friendly audiences like this one as he embarks on a mission to resuscitate his political career. But just as importantly, he is presenting himself as the guardian of the conservative traditions of a Republican Party that he grew up with and that have since been redefined by Mr. Trump.
He has begun turning up on high-profile television interviews to criticize Mr. Trump’s position on abortion, in one example. He announced that his political advocacy group would spend $20 million this year on appearances and advertisements that promote endangered conservative positions on issues including tariffs, government spending and America’s role in the world.
Mr. Pence is the most prominent Republican in the nation to declare that he would not endorse Mr. Trump, the man who chose Mr. Pence when he was governor of Indiana and put him in the White House. And he has made clear that, at the age of 65, he is not foreclosing another bid for the presidency.
“The role I want to play is to be a champion for a broad, mainstream conservative agenda that’s defined the Republican Party since the days of Ronald Reagan,” he said in an interview before his appearance at the conference. “I see some evidence that some voices in and around our party are departing from that — I want my voice, my organization, to be an anchor to windward.”
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