Former Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed Monday that his presidential aspirations are behind him, using his book promotion to call on Republicans to recommit to core conservative values.
Pence’s new book, What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience, urges that traditional conservative values are needed to address today’s issues. The former vice president explained that a candidate who campaigns on these issues will “carry the day,” citing Luke Combs’s lyrics to take his name out of the conversation.
“I love what Luke Combs has in one of his new songs,” Pence said when asked about running in 2028. “It’s got a line that says, ‘I think I rode that rocket about as far as it can fly.’ We don’t see that in our future.”
Pence’s remarks came at the National Press Club dinner he headlined with over 80 guests in attendance. The former vice president joined CBS News’s Robert Costa for a question-and-answer session after the meal.
After leaving office in 2021, Pence briefly ran for president in 2024 against President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. Outside of the unsuccessful presidential campaign, Pence has remained mostly out of the spotlight.
Costa questioned Pence on a variety of issues outside of his presidential aspirations, including artificial intelligence, Iran, and messaging for the midterm elections.
Throughout the question-and-answer session, Costa continued to underscore Pence’s role in bringing traditional conservative values to the 2016 Republican ticket with then-presidential candidate Trump.
In Pence’s book, he explains that similar to the Democratic Party, the Republican Party has also become more extreme, labeling this new conservative movement the “populist Right.”
Pence refused to call Trump a populist, remaining primarily neutral about his former boss throughout the event.
While Pence took issue with some of the policies the Trump administration has implemented, including the president’s tariffs, the former vice president praised Trump’s handling of the Iran war, calling the attacks “historical.”
“I think [attacking Iran] has earned the president some latitude here in trying to achieve a peaceful settlement,” Pence said.
Pence recalled his “very close working relationship” with Trump, saying the president is a “generational figure.” During meetings in which Pence would say something was conservative, Trump would push back, arguing it’s “common sense.”
As detailed in the book, Pence argues that not only are traditional conservative values the path to addressing today’s issues, but they are also a “winning agenda” that connects with most people.
“What inspired me to write this book in many ways, Bob, is that I think there are folks who want to take the president’s record and the periodic departures from traditional conservatism and make that the new agenda of the Republican Party moving forward,” Pence said.
“In my heart of hearts, I believe that the majority of Americans … embrace the principles that I write about in this book at home and abroad,” he added.
When pressed on the impact of his book, Pence said he wouldn’t publicize the private conversations he’s had, but revealed lawmakers did reach out to thank him.
“They’ve reached out to thank me for writing it, because I think they know this is a winning agenda,” Pence said. “I think it’s the right agenda for America.”
RESTORING AMERICA: WHICH WAY, REPUBLICAN?
One issue Pence pointed to as a traditional conservative value is lowering the national debt, saying he finds it “disappointing” that nothing is being done to address it and calling on Republicans to act.
“I have no doubt the progressive Left has their eye on your wallet, they have their eye on raising taxes on small-business owners,” he said. “So it’s incumbent upon Republicans to say, ‘What are the commonsense, compassionate reforms that we could bring forward that could bend the growth curve in these entitlements?’”
What Conservatives Believe is available for purchase online.
