“It’s time to come home and re-elect Republican majorities in the United States House and the United States Senate," Mike Pence also said. | Getty Pence to GOP: Come home to Trump

Mike Pence is pushing a new message for the final two weeks of the campaign, and it’s aimed squarely at Republicans wavering on support for Donald Trump: “It’s time to come home.”

Trump’s running mate said it again and again at a rally in Salisbury, North Carolina on Monday, showcasing a revamped stump speech with 15 days until the election.


“It’s time to come home and elect Donald Trump as the next president of the United States,” Pence said. “It’s time to come home and re-elect Republican majorities in the United States House and the United States Senate. … It’s time to come home and come together and do everything in our power to make sure that Hillary Clinton is never elected president of the United States of America.”

“That’s the choice we have,” Pence declared.

The call comes as Trump’s national poll numbers indicate he still has not solidified support from typically Republican voters. That is particularly troubling in North Carolina, which Mitt Romney narrowly carried in 2012.

And it’s not just voters yet to “come home”: a number of key GOP senators and governors continue to oppose Trump, and the nominee has not done much to win them over. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan, who supports Trump but has declined to defend him, has been the target of repeated attacks from the nominee.

Pence stuck mostly to his usual themes, but with a new urgency, telling the crowd to take advantage of early voting and cast their ballots right away. He slammed Hillary Clinton and the media, as he has throughout the campaign, and also sought to frame the race as a change election.

“It’s change versus the status quo,” Pence declared. “And they’re making you a promise: If you like your status quo, you can keep it.”

The message is one Trump has tried repeatedly to push, but he’s found himself getting tripped up on controversies of his own making — like Saturday, when he used a speech in Gettysburg about his first 100 days to threaten lawsuits against the women who have accused him of sexual assault.