Former Vice President Mike Pence’s campaign is going through some hard times. The candidate is struggling with fundraising issues, low polling numbers, and difficulty getting his message to resonate with the Republican base.

Over the duration of the Republican primary campaign, Pence has not been able to make a big enough splash on the scene to compete with others vying for the GOP nomination. Now, his campaign is reportedly lacking in funds, which could make it even more difficult for him to rise in the polling.

A campaign finance report that Mr. Pence filed over the weekend painted a dire picture. The former vice president had just $1.2 million in his campaign account, a skimpier reserve than any of the six Republican rivals he shared a debate stage with last month.

Mr. Pence has struggled to achieve the goal he announced when he rolled out his campaign in June — to “reintroduce” himself to voters as his own man, allowing him to step out from the shadow of Donald J. Trump. He has defined himself as a Reagan-era conservative in a party that has largely turned its back on that era: He argues for aid to Ukraine to voters who are isolationist, exudes civility when the base hungers for confrontation and defends his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, while a majority of Republicans falsely believe or suspect that the 2020 election was stolen.

Although Mr. Pence raised $3.3 million in the three months through September, he burned through nearly an equal amount in that period, and his campaign ran up a debt of $620,000.

The candidate has also had tremendous challenges when it comes to building a base of support among the GOP electorate. When he arrived in New Hampshire last week to become the first contender to file his paperwork, hardly anyone showed up.

One family who was standing in the hallway had filled in behind him, and when he saw the children holding American flags, he remarked: “You really draw a crowd.”

But the few New Hampshire voters who turned out for the former vice president were far outnumbered by the news media.

Even worse, Pence’s campaign has been forced to cut staff. If a candidate is already cutting staff early in the race, and his name is not Ron DeSantis, it is not exactly indicative of a thriving campaign. At this point, it seems the former vice president’s race is on life support.

According to the latest RealClearPolitics average, Pence is sitting at 3.6 percent support, trailing entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, DeSantis, and former President Donald Trump, who is leading the pack at 57.9 percent support.

In Iowa, where Pence is trying to make inroads with evangelical voters, only six percent named him as their first choice. It seems he is in the unenviable position of having to toe the line between the anti-Trump and pro-Trump factions of the party.

And the former vice president has not overcome the contradiction at the core of his candidacy: For anti-Trump Republicans, he was subservient to Mr. Trump for far too long, and for Trump supporters willing to consider an alternative, he was not subservient enough on Jan. 6, when he balked at Mr. Trump’s demand that he nullify Joseph R. Biden’s election while overseeing the ceremonial count of Electoral College votes.

So, here’s the burning question: Is it time for Pence to quit?

While it seems unlikely that he would ever win the nomination, it might not be time to hang it up just yet. It is still early in the process and there is a chance, albeit slim, that something major could happen that would boost his numbers and improve his fundraising abilities. It’s a long shot, for sure. But in American politics, sometimes it’s best to never say never.