On Oct. 31, the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Dartmouth Dialogues co-hosted former Vice President Mike Pence for a 2024 Election Speaker Series event titled “Conservatism, the Presidency and the Future of American Democracy.” Approximately 330 people attended the event in the Hanover Inn Grand Ballroom, with another 220 watching the livestream on YouTube.
Approximately 40 community members protested the event outside the Hanover Inn. According to protester Roan Wade ’25, the demonstration was organized by the New Deal Coalition and Upper Valley for Palestine to protest Pence’s opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and workplace protections.
“There’s a lot of homophobia and transphobia on campus,” Wade said. “… [Dartmouth is] platforming a man who literally is dehumanizing their own student body.”
The event was moderated by government professors Russell Muirhead and Herschel Nachlis and former vice president for government and community relations Emma Wolfe. Muirhead and Nachlis, along with fellow government professor William Wolforth, teach GOVT 30.17/PBPL 24, “The 2024 Election,” which Pence and other series speakers have attended while on campus.
Throughout the discussion, the co-moderators asked Pence questions about the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, his political career and the future of the Republican Party, among other topics.
In an interview after the event, Yvangi Jacques ’28 said he attended the event because he believed it was “important” to learn how to “do [his] proper role as a citizen” as a college freshman in an election year. He added that the discussion contained “a lot of valuable information” and was “very engaging.”
“It’s very interesting to hear insights from someone who formerly was a part of the White House,” Jacques said.
Pence said his decision to certify the results of the 2020 election was determined by the oath he swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” at his inauguration in January 2017.
“In the run-up to that fateful day that I never could have conceived would’ve occurred and unfolded the way that it did, to me, I was just determined to keep my oath,” Pence said.
When the Capitol was breached, Pence and his team initially moved “across the hall” from the Senate floor to his office, Pence said. He added that he “wasn’t afraid” but was “angry” as he watched the situation unfold.
“Looking at people smashing windows in the Capitol, looking at people climbing on to the seat of our government, the People’s House, I found myself thinking, ‘Not this, not here, not in America,’” Pence said.
Although Pence was urged by Secret Service agents to leave the Capitol several times as the mob moved closer, he was “determined to stay at [his] post” and “finish the work that we were tasked to do under the Constitution,” he said. The Secret Service eventually compromised on relocating the Vice President to the parking garage of the Capitol, which was “secured” and “still in the building,” Pence added.
Pence said he believes Jan. 6 was a “tragic day” that became a “triumph of freedom” once the Congress reconvened and “finished the people’s work for the peaceful transition of power.”
“I said, ‘The world is now going to witness the resilience of our institutions,’” Pence said. “And never doubt that if … each of us [are] leaders that keep our oath, … do our jobs [and] fulfill our obligations under the Constitution of the United States, it will always be so in this country.”
Pence declined to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump — whom he served under as vice president — in the upcoming election.
“I’m a conservative,” Pence said. “I could never vote for Kamala Harris or Tim Walz. … But I’m not endorsing the Republican ticket. I’m staying out of it because I’m concerned about the direction of the Republican Party.”
According to Pence, “some voices” in the GOP are “starting to pull back from supporting our allies” in Eastern Europe, “marginalizing the right to life” and ignoring the national debt. He added that he and Trump have an “ongoing difference” about Pence’s “constitutional duties.” After Pence refused to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Trump repeatedly argued that Pence “could have” done so, according to PBS News.
However, Pence rejected the notion that the traditional Republican Party “does not exist anymore.” Pence said he encountered people “everywhere” he visited during his 2024 presidential campaign who agreed with his policy positions.
“I think there were other factors, other cross currents [and] anxiety about the current administration that created a dynamic in our primary [in 2024], but I don’t think it was walking away from our principles,” Pence said.
Attendee Simon Obahor GR, an international student, said he attended the event to “indulge in … American politics” in an election year. He added that he wanted to get a “broader context” from the event as someone who is not a “right-wing, traditional person.”
“I think it’s even more important to look the other way and seek … dialogue,” Obahor said.
History professor Bethany Moreton participated in the protest outside the Hanover Inn. She said that hosting Pence opened a debate on the “basic humanity” of members of the LGBTQ+ community, “in the name of simply making sure that even the worst ideas are being represented on campus.”
Moreton — who is a historian of the Christian right — cautioned that the rise of Trump and Pence was part of an international wave of support for “right-wing authoritarianism” and Christian nationalism. By inviting the former vice president, the College indicated that Pence’s views “merit our thought and engagement,” she said.
“We’re not shutting him down,” she said. “We’re simply saying, ‘Don’t represent him as an agent in an intellectual debate on a university campus.’”
It is the “prerogative” of Dartmouth students and community members to protest and say that these ideas should not be welcome, she added.
“Dialogue is us saying that these are terrible ideas that should not be in power,” she said.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, a representative from the Rockefeller Center defended the choice to invite Pence but wrote that they “respect the concerns expressed by the student protesters.” Who the College chooses to invite is not an “endorsement” of their views, they added.
“Throughout the Vice President’s visit, students were provided with opportunities to interact with him, and whether they agreed or disagreed with his views, they brought smart, thoughtful and challenging questions to the engagement,” the representative wrote. “We believe there is academic value in providing opportunity for discussion across difference, just as we support the students’ rights to free speech and protest.
