So it might be tempting to view Pence’s endorsement of Lake’s opponent as rooted in a desire to protect democracy. But Pence’s motives seem more opportunistic. First, by endorsing Robson, Pence is hoping to show that he’s his own man, not just a Trump lackey—a signal that he’ll probably run for president again in 2024, despite the clear lack of voter appetite for him.
More than anything, though, Pence is attempting some serious political damage control. He’s trying to—carefully, methodically—carve out a different path for members of his party, one that keeps them separate from the bombast and election-denying that Trump represents. “Some people want this election to be about the past, but elections are always about the future,” Pence tweeted last night. “If the Republican Party allows itself to become consumed by yesterday’s grievances, we will lose.” It’s not about snubbing the former president, Barrett Marson, an Arizona Republican strategist, told me. Pence “isn’t backing Kari Lake because she’s fucking insane.”
Voters who once populated the fringe of the GOP are now front and center—and calling a lot of the shots. “There is alarm from many corners of the Republican old guard that they’re being overrun by cranks,” Longwell said. Those cranks can be a political liability. Lake is leading Robson in primary polls, but in a general election against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Katie Hobbs, Robson polls much better, according to the Arizona firm OH Predictive Insights. Other Trump-endorsed Republicans are in tight or losing races of their own, including Herschel Walker in Georgia, and Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. “There’s so many of these conspiratorial candidates [that] it’s imperiling Republicans” in what should be an otherwise favorable environment for them, Longwell said.
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