The rift between former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence looks like it may be deepening.
As most know, in the run-up to certifying the 2020 election — a fateful made even more so by the riot at the Capitol Building — Trump put a lot of pressure on Pence to not certify electoral votes from key battleground states that had, in the view of several legal experts, improperly changed their voting rules and laws ahead of the November election.
But as president of the Senate and seeing no constitutional way he could not count all electoral votes forwarded to him by the states, Pence did so and certified the election for now-President Joe Biden.
In the months that followed, some reports claimed that Trump and Pence were civil and had had at least some conversations, though they eventually tapered off and the two men haven’t had any contact at all for the better part of a year, according to reports.
There have been indications that Pence is setting himself up for a 2024 presidential bid; Trump has dropped major hints that he, too, wants to run again next time around.
And now, the two are about to go head-to-head in a proxy battle for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in Georgia.
11Alive :
Former Vice President Mike Pence will be coming to Georgia to campaign on behalf of Gov. Brian Kemp, the governor’s campaign announced Friday morning.
The campaign issued a release that said Pence would attend a rally with Gov. Kemp on Monday, May 23 – the day before the May 24 primaries in Georgia.
The former vice president is throwing his weight behind the governor as former President Donald Trump backs his challenger, David Perdue. …
Kemp has maintained a strong lead to earn the GOP nomination for reelection in polling ahead of Primary Day. An found he had a 56%-31% edge on Perdue, the former senator who lost his reelection bid in the Jan. 2021 runoffs.
So far, all of the GOP candidates Trump has backed have won their primaries, but Trump’s candidate is trailing — by a lot — versus Pence’s candidate. If Perdue doesn’t win the primary, will Trump sort of bury the hatchet — he was upset that Kemp did not do more to overturn the results in Georgia for Biden — and back a red governor against the likely Dem nominee, Stacey Abrams, who will have a massive campaign war chest behind her?
Or is this just the first of many more political proxy battles between the two former running mates?
KNOW MORE:
Survey: Republican Voters Like Pence But They Prefer Trump and His Policies