people keep talking about how this helps pence for 2020 - seriously? the guy will be out of politics for four years and i would think the party would want to move on from trump, not nominate the guy who ran on the ticket with him...this was pence's last time in national politics before moving on to fox news. maybe he takes over for brit after inauguration?
And that is arguably a good thing. He won't have to make controversial votes or sign anymore controversial laws. He can spend his time in IA and NH building a network and siphoning off some of the Evengelical support that Cruz would be depending on.
Also, numerous candidates are going to want to tap into Trump's support in 2018 without wanting to come into photo snapping distance of Trump. This will almost certainly make Pence the top sought after surrogate for Republicans running in 2018.