Make no mistake about it, the progressive media wants Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination in 2024. Of all the Republican candidates for 2024, Donald Trump will be the easiest for Joe Biden (or any Democrat) to defeat in the general election.

As soon as any Republican other than Trump begins picking up steam, expect the media to tear him or her down immediately. With Ron DeSantis, he led a Republican revolution in Florida's mid-term elections and the media did everything possible to make him look weak in his fight against Disney; which realistically went pretty well in the courts for DeSantis and the state of Florida. Then Vivek Ramaswamy began taking off, but after a week or two, stories began to emerge about his long history donating to and voting for Democrats.

Now it's Mike Pence's turn. After heckling the MAGA hecklers protesting his campaign stop and doubling down on his role upholding the Constitution by certifying the election in 2020 during the chaos on January 6th, Pence's star began to rise.

However, the leftist media is now in tear down mode, suggesting Pence is totally unelectable because he's pro-life. That's hardly a secret. Mike Pence has always been among the most pro-life Republicans in the country, even being one of the foremost pro-life leaders in the US Congress when he was in House leadership. The leftists are right in a sense. As I've previously lamented, the pro-life movement has been more of a liability for Republicans in 2022 and many of the various special elections held since the repeal of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court.

What the progressive's can't fathom right now is that Mike Pence's path to the nomination REQUIRES him to be pro-life. For Mike Pence to win the Republican nomination, he needs to win Iowa. The path to win Iowa goes through one man: Bob Vander Plaats.

The pictures below are from the victory stage immediately after three most recent Iowa Caucuses.

That gut with the red arrow following him around is Bob Vander Plaats and the guy has a pretty strong hold on the conservative evangelical voters in Iowa. He endorsed Huckabee in 2008 and introduced Huckabee on stage when he on Iowa in a landslide, despite the polls saying it would be close between him and Mitt Romney. In 2012, when Huckabee didn't run, it looked like Bob Vander Plaats was going to stay out of the race, but at the last minute, he flexed his muscles. Bob Vander Plaats endorsed Rick Santorum; who was drowning in the polls up until that point. In a matter of a couple of days, Rick Santorum went from nobody to victor in Iowa. In 2016, I think a lot of people expected Huckabee to walk away with the Iowa caucuses. However, Huckabee struggled. Bob Vander Plaats easily could have made the call and been the Iowa Kingmaker for Huckabee again, but he instead decided to support Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz squeezed out a victory in Iowa.

Now, all of these guys have something else in common. They went on the lose the nomination. However, it wasn't because they were evangelical. Huckabee lost because he couldn't raise money and focused on Michigan and New Hampshire instead of South Carolina (and because Fred Thompson was really angry about something one of Huckabee's fanboys made that ended up getting played on FoxNews). Rick Santorum lost because Newt Gingrich wouldn't get out of the race and let Santorum face Mitt Romney one-on-one. Ted Cruz lost because he's kind of creepy looking and seemed too sleazy to be trusted, but not sleazy enough to beat Donald Trump at his own game.

Mike Pence is also perhaps the most evangelical candidate on the ballot for 2024.

Unlike Huckabee, Mike Pence can raise money. He did it in Congress, as Governor, and as Vice President.

Unlike Santorum vs. Romney, there is a generally agreed upon NEED to defeat Donald Trump in the primary. Even Mitt Romney wants donors to pressure candidates to drop out of the race ASAP (Mitt knows how he won the nomination in 2012).

Unlike Ted Cruz, Mike Pence is generally considered an authentic, "too honest" kind of guy.

Yes, being pro-life is hurting Republicans right now, but as Donald Trump's trials proceed, the January 6th riots and attempts to overturn the election are going to be an enormous issue. Although Pence is the most pro-life candidate, he's also the man whose bravery and conviction prevented the Constitutional crisis everyone's going to be talking about in 2024 during the trials of Donald Trump, including televised trials.

All of this is to make a very simple argument. If you don't win Iowa, you're going to be pushed out of this race. If you want to win Iowa, you need Bob Vander Plaats. If you want Bob Vander Plaats, you've got to have a REALLY strong record on standing for Christian Values. If you want to have a really strong record for Christian Values, you've got to be pro-life.

If he does well in the upcoming debates, Mike Pence should be well positioned to win Bob Vander Plaats' support (hopefully) somewhat early, win Iowa, and (with the support of Mitt Romney and others) unite the post-Trump Republicans, and beat Joe Biden.

Also, I'm fairly certain Mike Pence knows all of this extremely well because he's using the same savant campaign manager that Mike Huckabee had in 2008.