Pence Says GOP Needs to Rediscover Its Conscience

On the evening of June 10, in front of an audience of hundreds at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, former Vice President Mike Pence said that he believes the Grand Old Party needs to rediscover its conscience.

There’s been a culture shift within the Republican Party and “the populist right” over Donald Trump and MAGA’s second grip of the presidency, Pence claimed. The president had harshly spurned Pence after he refused to commit election fraud and condemned the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in 2021, where rioters had erected gallows while chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”

“January 6 was a tragic day in the life of our nation,” Pence said. “The only heroes I saw that day were wearing uniforms.” The crowd broke into a long applause. Many in the room similarly applauded when Pence called Israel “our most cherished ally” and referenced the Trump-Pence administration’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and its oppressive immigration crackdown.

As felt evident in some of the crowd’s responses, Pence represents the religious-conservative side of the Trump-Pence coin. He’s a traditional Christian, self-deprecating at times, and frequently quoted Bible verses in his Midwestern cadence. From small-town, deep-red Indiana, Pence is predictably anti-abortion, pro-“traditional family,” pro-school choice, and thinks that “democracy depends on heavy doses of civility.”

In his post-White House, MAGA-blacklisted life, Pence has taken to writing a manifesto on what it means to be a conservative, called What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience, hoping to call his party back to those core, Reagan-era values. “Many Republicans have rushed to align themselves with every aspect of Trump’s agenda, even when it has clashed with the traditional beliefs of conservatives,” he writes.

And in the midst of Ken Paxton and James Talarico’s showdown for the Texas Senate seat ahead of November – when some religious conservatives are struggling to come to terms with Paxton’s felony charges and adultery that led to his bipartisan 2023 impeachment – interviewer Mark Updegrove, president of the LBJ Foundation, was quick to draw the connection.

“You threw your support to our incumbent Senator John Cornyn, and Donald Trump threw his support to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton,” Updegrove pointed out. “If Ken Paxton asked for your support, would you give it to him?” 

Several seconds passed before Pence glanced at his watch and jokingly asked, “Would you look at the time?” In the row behind us, someone whispered, “Just say no.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke on conservative values at the LBJ Presidential Library on June 10 Credit: Jay Godwin

“Well, let me say I’m confident the people of Texas are going to do their part to keep that Republican majority in the Senate, I really am,” Pence continued lightly. “But I think it’s a mistake to conflate that with an endorsement of a change in the Republican Party’s agenda on these key issues. Now, the populist right wants to do that.”

The rift felt in the room, with many audience members clutching Pence’s manifesto, seemed perhaps emblematic of that within the greater party. On June 8, Dan Cogdell, Ken Paxton’s defense attorney during his impeachment trial, endorsed Talarico with full support. “I think Ken has lost sight of his core mission, which is to represent the people of Texas,” Cogdell said. On June 9, Cornyn told the Washington Examiner that he would not campaign for Paxton. 

And while the Texas GOP convention took place in Houston over the June 13 weekend, Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley took to local conservative talk radio to urge his fellow Republicans not to vote for Paxton.

“[Paxton] is known for scandal, indictment, infidelity, and putting his own interests ahead of Texans,” Whitley said. “This November, I’ll proudly support conservative candidates on the ballot. But I won’t vote for Ken Paxton.”

But during the same convention, Republican leaders like Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick urged party members to rally and unify behind Paxton. “We cannot lose this Senate race. We cannot lose Texas,” Patrick told attendees.

In Paxton’s best interests, Patrick sought to widen the divide between conservative and more progressive Christians who may jump ship to Talarico’s campaign. “It’s James Talarico who decided to bring the Bible into this election. And let me tell you, that’s not a Bible I’ve ever read,” Patrick continued. “I’m gonna pray for that guy … because he’s going to hell for sure.”

At the LBJ Library, Pence recalled that Trump, who remains the epicenter of Paxton’s campaign, had sometimes scoffed at Christian values. In the final days of the Trump-Pence administration, the two had a private meeting on the transition to the Biden administration, Pence recounted.

“And the president, he was very down,” Pence remembered. “And I just looked at him as we were wrapping up the meeting, and I just said, ‘I want you to know, I’m praying for you.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Don’t bother.’”

Pence further pressed to his audience that the “departures” in values within the GOP are putting “the political fortunes of Republicans” in Texas at peril. 

“But I really do believe that people in my party face a choice,” Pence continued. “Whether we’re going to continue to steer our party on the timeless principles that have defined Republicanism for 50 years and more, or whether we’ll follow the siren song of populism.”

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