If you run for President and lose, there’s a chance you can come back and run again. But in modern American politics, being the running mate on a losing ticket makes you a political leper. Look at what happened to previous losing VP candidates in recent decades: Dan Quayle (1992), Jack Kemp (1996), Joe Lieberman (2000), John Edwards (2004), Sarah Palin (2008), Paul Ryan (2012) and Tim Kaine (2016).
Most of these people faded into obscurity — some of them remembered as humiliating failures all around (Edwards and Ryan, for example).
Pence isn’t running in 2024. His political career is over.
That’s fine with me.