Most of America’s vice presidents have been cheerfully forgotten, thanks in part to dismissive quotes from some of the men who have held the office. Throughout the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth century, important politicians turned down the job while non-controversial third stringers filled the job. After getting paired with obscure upstate New York Congressman William Wheeler in 1876, Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes wrote “I am ashamed to say: Who is Wheeler?" That was par for the course for most of American history as lesser lights like George M. Dallas, Levi Morton and “Sunny” Jim Sherman held the post.
In recent years, of course, the position has grown more prominent. George H. W. Bush became the first vice president since Martin Van Buren to move up to the top job since winning an election. Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Mondale, Bush and Al Gore all got some top assignments when they served as vice presidents. In more recent years, Dick Cheney was often accused of having more power than George W. Bush did while Joe Biden has generally played a major role in the Obama administration.
It’s too early to say, of course, how much power Tim Kaine will have under President Hillary Clinton or what Mike Pence will oversee in a Trump administration. But both men are trying to round up votes for their tickets in the swing states instead of the solid blue and Republican states. That’s a bit of a rare move since often the vice presidential candidates are used to rally the base in states that aren’t particularly competitive. Dick Cheney watched high school football games across the Mountain West back in 2000 for example while the first Bush used Dan Quayle to bring in wary conservatives both in 1988 and 1992.
Kaine was in Florida on Friday trying to rally Democrats to the polls as early voting continues. That’s only the latest stop in the Sunshine State for Kaine who has spent much of October campaigning in the largest swing state on the map. Pence is also targeting the swing states with appearances in Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, Florida, Colorado (admittedly less of a battleground than some of the other states) and Utah where Trump is facing a serious problem from conservative third party candidate Evan McMullin.
Both Kaine and Pence offer advantages to their respective tickets. While he didn’t exactly shine in his debate with Pence, Kaine isn’t burdened with Clinton’s history of ethical questions. A former TV show host, Pence is far more polished than Trump and generally gets high marks from most parts of the GOP.
With both Clinton and Trump upside down in the polls, it makes sense for their campaigns to feature the understudies as much as possible. That being the case, expect to see Kaine and Pence in the handful of remaining swing states in the final days of the campaign.
