Pining for "President Pence": Why Has Mike Pence Formed His Own PAC?

In a highly unusual move, Vice President Mike Pence is forming a political action committee (PAC) whose name riffs off of President Trump’s campaign slogan. The PAC is called “The Great America Committee,” and it is being set up to both help get Republicans elected in 2018 and 2020, in addition to funding Pence’s own future political aspirations.

The last time a sitting vice president formed a PAC was back in 1988, when George H.W. Bush formed the “Fund for America’s Future” to fund his post-Reagan presidential campaign. One of Pence’s senior campaign advisors, Nick Ayers, will be running day-to-day operations of Pence’s new PAC.

The Washington Examiner quotes Ayers as saying, “The vice president is playing a leading role in passing legislation on the Hill. He wants to support House and Senate members who are helping pass the president’s agenda.”

Makes sense, but then there’s the timing of the PAC to also consider. If this PAC is destined to fund Pence’s future political activities, just what are his plans? Politico reported yesterday that many conservatives are finding “solace” in the fact that Pence is “waiting in the wings” if Trump’s presidency spontaneously combusts.

This guy seems familiar:

Erick Erickson, a conservative pundit who was a strong Never Trumper but then pledged to give the president a chance, wrote on Wednesday that Republicans should abandon the president because they “have no need for him with Mike Pence in the wings.”

Cue the comparisons to Gerald Ford:

“It’s almost an eerie comparison that a more mild-mannered, religious conservative Republican Gerald Ford came in,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “He’s much like Pence in temperament and personality. He doesn’t have that acerbic side that Nixon and Trump had.”

The general consensus seems to be that Trump will not step aside in favor of Pence, but stranger things have happened. Like all of 2016 and what we’ve seen from 2017 thus far.

Things just keep getting interestinger and interestinger in DC-land.