Former Vice President Mike Pence’s already struggling 2024 presidential campaign has racked up debts upwards of $620,000, according to a campaign finance filing released over the weekend.
Pence’s campaign managed to raise just $3.3 million in the last quarter, a figure far below competitors in the GOP nominee race, considering the former Vice President himself contributed $150,000. Pence’s former running mate, Donald Trump, on the other hand, raised a whopping $45.5 million in the same quarter.
The filing also noted that it has just $1.2 million in cash to support the campaign, yet $200,000 cannot be deployed due to it having been raised by donors who have already provided the maximum amount for a primary campaign. The funds would only be available in a general election.
The last time a GOP candidate reported such high debts was former Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker, who dropped out of the 2016 Republican nominee race days after revealing campaign debts of $161,000 – almost half a million dollars less than Pence.
“That debt number is gonna be impossible to pay back… When he drops out he’s going to have to do debt-retirement fundraisers,” admitted an anonymous ally of the former Vice President.
Worse still for Pence is that his campaign is yet to announce whether it has amassed the requisite 70,000 individual donors for the third Republican presidential debate on November 8th. Pence barely made the first debate’s requirement of only 40,000 individual donors and only reached the number within a couple of weeks of the debate.
Pence has taken to attacking his former running mate in a last-gasp bid to save his campaign, such as blaming Hamas terrorism on the 45th president and suggesting Trump is not conservative because he would attempt to broker peace in Ukraine, though to little avail. He has consistently polled below five percent since announcing his campaign.