Pence Reportedly Declines CPAC as DeSantis Appears Set to Skip Event Amid Matt Schlapp Groping Allegation

AP Photo/Meg Kinnard

Mike Pence “declined” an invitation to this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, ABC News’s Olivia Rubin reported Friday.

The annual gathering of the American right will see a series of big names headlining, including former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, both 2024 presidential candidates.

Yet Pence, who is mulling a 2024 run himself, will not be speaking at the conference, per ABC News. He’s not alone among potential 2024 aspirants. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), who spoke at CPAC last year, has yet to commit to attending. Rubin reported a CPAC spokesperson said neither Pence nor DeSantis are set to speak.

The 2023 edition of CPAC is coming around this year with more controversy than usual.

Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which hosts CPAC, was accused last year of groping a male staffer on Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign.

Schlapp denied the allegation through a lawyer. The anonymous man sued Schlapp, accusing the powerful conservative activist of “aggressively fondling” his “genital area in a sustained fashion” while the pair shared a car ride in Georgia.

Read the ABC News report here.