Pence Stars in Anti-Trump Ad Campaign by GOP Group

An anti-Trump GOP advocacy group is launching a six-figure ad campaign to promote former Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to endorse his onetime boss, according to the Washington Examiner.

Republican Voters Against Trump is set to run a 15-second digital ad in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The group, which is reportedly backed by the Republican Accountability PAC, will also put up billboards in Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids, Mich.

“Mike Pence knows Donald Trump better than anyone else,” the digital ad’s narrator says. “And he knows how dangerous a second Trump administration would be. Mike Pence is putting country over party. And we will, too.”

The ad features footage of the former president and vice president together, as well as a clip of Pence saying he won’t endorse Trump.

Citing “profound differences” with Trump, Pence said last week that he could not endorse the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as he campaigns for another term in the White House.

“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence told Fox News.

John Conway, director of strategy for Republican Voters Against Trump, emphasized the importance of Pence’s nonendorsement to the Examiner.

“This is someone who worked with Donald Trump all four years of his presidency,” Conway said. “He saw Donald Trump up close and personal every single day, and his refusal to endorse Donald Trump should sound the alarm for other voters in the country that Donald Trump is unfit to be president again.”

In a statement, Gunner Ramer, the group’s political director, told the Examiner that Pence “joins the ever-growing coalition of Republican Voters Against Trump.”

“Pence served as Trump’s vice president for four years, but even he recognizes who Trump really is: A threat to our democracy who is unfit for office,” Ramer said.

Pence, who ended his primary challenge of Trump in October, is the most prominent Republican to decline to endorse the former president after he clinched the GOP nomination.

Other well-known Republicans who have said they won’t back Trump include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, and former Trump Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.