When it comes to US democracy, Mike Pence is a hero in comparison to Derek Schmidt

Is Derek Schmidt worthy of Mike Pence’s support?

Pence seems to think so. The former vice president is coming to Kansas this week to campaign for Schmidt, the GOP nominee for governor. And it makes a certain amount of sense: Both are good Republicans who have advanced their careers through decades of dogged service to the party. They are more alike than not.

There is one vitally important divide between the two men, however. Pence stood up for American democracy when it counted. Schmidt didn’t.

It’s that simple.

Even now, it is odd to think of Pence as a hero of Jan. 6. He spent his vice presidency slavishly devoted to Donald Trump — going out of his way to stay at Trump-branded properties during trips abroad, putting his own well-known Christian conservatism on the line to serve a thrice-married man who bragged on video about sexual assault. Pence wasn’t obviously a profile in courage.

Then the 2020 election happened. Trump lied and claimed that victory had been stolen from him. He pressured Pence to sidestep his constitutional role in certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College win, and urged his vice president to send the election back to the states so that a few GOP-led legislatures could have a second bite at the apple.

Pence examined the Constitution, and refused Trump’s demands. When insurrectionists violently invaded the U.S. Capitol, he stayed in the building even though rampaging Trumpists were calling for his head. Instead, he returned to the Senate chambers and certified Biden’s win. That makes him a hero, albeit an unlikely one.

Schmidt, on the other hand, was decidedly unheroic.

It is true that as Kansas attorney general he condemned the insurrection on the day it happened, calling it “sickening, shameful, inexcusable and counterproductive.” But it is also true that he helped lay the foundation for Jan. 6 by signing onto a post-election lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to challenge election procedures in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia — four swing states that went for Biden in the election. The Supreme Court quickly rejected the case, and Schmidt said he was ready to move on.

Too late. The lawsuit gave weight and momentum to the entirely false notion that there was something hinky about Biden’s victory. Two years later, polls show that most Republicans still don’t believe he won White House fair and square. Our democracy is undeniably fragile at the moment. There are real reasons to worry it might not survive. Schmidt — in his own, small way — helped build that.

This is all well-worn territory by now. The question is whether it still matters.

There are reasons to be skeptical. A New York Times/Siena College poll released this week shows 71% of American voters say democracy is under threat, but only 7% rank that issue as the most important challenge facing the country. That is somewhat understandable — voters are more worried about the economy, and we all have to eat — but also distressing.

It also may not matter all that much to Pence. Nobody forced him to campaign for Schmidt.

But we will miss democracy when it is gone. And Pence doesn’t get to define his own legacy. He is — now and forever — the man who stood for the Constitution on Jan. 6. That is what makes him more than just another forgotten vice president. Nobody cares what Dan Quayle is doing these days, after all.

And that creates a paradox for the Schmidt campaign: What makes Pence interesting and notable, and thus a potentially potent endorser of the Kansas Republican, is also the thing that highlights that candidate’s flaws. Whether he means to or not, Mike Pence will also serve as a living reminder that in a crucial moment for American democracy, Derek Schmidt fell short.

This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 11:40 AM.