“What I can tell you is that we have no plans,” Pence said.
Pence made the comment Wednesday during an appearance before the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., after chairman David Rubenstein pressed him about whether he might seek the presidency—or another elected position—in 2028. Recent reporting likewise described Pence as having no current plans to pursue elected office that year.
The former vice president did not issue an ironclad declaration ruling out another campaign forever. Instead, he made clear that running for office is not where his attention is currently directed.
Pence said his priority is his family and Advancing American Freedom, the conservative organization he established after leaving the vice presidency.
Rather than preparing another campaign operation, Pence says he intends to continue making the case for the brand of conservatism that defined much of his political career: smaller government, lower taxes, fewer regulations, traditional social values and opposition to abortion.
“The calling of my life right now is to be a champion for these principles,” Pence said.
He also indicated that he intends to remain involved in the national political conversation even if his name is not appearing on a ballot.
“For whatever time I have left on the stage, I’m going to spend championing those principles,” Pence said.
That puts Pence in an unusual position inside today’s Republican Party.
He served alongside Trump for four years and spent much of that administration as one of the president’s most loyal public defenders. But the political partnership eventually fractured over the aftermath of the 2020 election and the certification of the Electoral College results on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump pushed Pence to intervene in the certification process. Pence maintained that the Constitution gave the vice president no authority to unilaterally reject electoral votes.
Asked about that decision this week, Pence remained unapologetic.
“It was the easiest decision I’ve ever made,” Pence said. “By God’s grace I did my duty that day.”
The split ultimately followed Pence into the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
Pence entered the contest against his former running mate but struggled to build sufficient support. He suspended his campaign in October 2023, months before Republican voters began casting ballots in the primary contests.
He subsequently declined to endorse Trump during the 2024 campaign. Trump nevertheless captured the Republican nomination and returned to the White House.
Pence, meanwhile, has continued trying to preserve a more traditional strain of Republican conservatism.
His public advocacy has focused heavily on fiscal restraint, free enterprise, traditional social policy and an assertive American role overseas—areas where his outlook has sometimes diverged from the populist direction increasingly visible within the GOP.
Those disagreements have not disappeared during Trump’s second administration.
Earlier in 2026, Pence publicly objected to the possibility that people who committed violence against law enforcement during the Jan. 6 riot could receive taxpayer-funded compensation through the administration’s proposed “anti-weaponization” fund.
“I didn’t agree with the President when he pardoned people who engaged in violence against law enforcement officials,” Pence told Axios.
“And it would be my hope that anyone who engaged in violence against law enforcement or at the Capitol building would never be rewarded with taxpayers’ money.”
Pence later repeated that criticism during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” arguing that taxpayers should not compensate people who assaulted officers or vandalized the Capitol.
The issue subsequently changed significantly: Axios reported on June 1 that the administration planned to abandon the controversial $1.8 billion fund following legal challenges and bipartisan criticism. Reuters separately reported the administration’s plan to withdraw it.
Pence’s willingness to challenge Trump on Jan. 6 and other issues has placed him outside the dominant Trump-aligned wing of today’s Republican Party, even as he continues to identify himself firmly with conservative principles.
For now, however, Pence does not appear interested in turning those disagreements into another presidential campaign.
His message is that his next chapter will be about ideas rather than another run for office.
That leaves the 2028 Republican field without Pence—at least according to his plans today—and gives the former vice president a different role as the GOP begins the long debate over what comes after the Trump era.
And while Pence carefully avoided saying “never,” his latest remarks leave little ambiguity about his present intentions.
There is no Pence 2028 campaign in the works.
