Former Vice President Mike Pence is having an unusually quiet week on the trail after filing a finance report showing his campaign facing money troubles.
The usually busy Pence campaign’s only public event this week was a pre-planned Tuesday Newsmax town hall in Windsor Heights, Iowa .
Pence is not planning to attend Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ MMM Tailgate in Iowa City Friday — where much of the rest of the 2024 GOP presidential field will appear, including former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Instead, the Pence campaign says he will be in Dallas for private fundraisers and a Republican National Committee event.
Pence’s campaign reported only $1.2 million in the bank after the third quarter — not all of which can even be spent in the 2024 primary. The campaign is already carrying $620,000 in debt, and Pence himself chipped in $150,000 of his own personal money to keep things going in the third quarter.
That puts a serious strain on the day-to-day operations of the campaign — and what’s more, Pence also faces a sprint to amass the 70,000 unique donors needed to qualify for the Nov. 8 GOP presidential debate. His campaign has not yet commented on how close it is to meeting the donor threshold, which was a struggle for Pence in the lead-up to the first GOP debate in August.
