THIS. His one act of finally checking Trump's destructive behaviour doesn't make him a saint; and it surely doesn't balance out all the crazy cult stuff.
I don't know who Pence is trying to appeal to. Voters who were on board with Trump only up until the insurrection? That's a very, very, very small subset.
Even then, his campaign makes no sense, because he won't even truly attack Trump for trying to get him killed. Instead he just says he believes Trump interpreted the Constitution incorrectly.
Pence looks very very weak. No one wants that in a leader.
Probably would have won in 2024 if trump simply accepted defeat and went away like every other losing candidate. He could have run as"trump's ideas but more stable". As it stands the base he needs think he's the guy who prevented trump from stealing the election.
One side thinks he's a traitor to Trumpism for not helping to steal the election, and the other sees him as a wuss for covering for Trump. So both sides see him as a wimp and not fully reliable.