Good Cop or Good Soldier? Mike Pence Is a Tempting Target for 2020 Democrats

Vice President Mike Pence was doing just fine in the background. Then a Democrat called him “decent.”

In their search to present themselves as the antidote to the Trump administration, a raft of Democratic presidential hopefuls are targeting Mr. Pence, an evangelical Christian and comparatively sedate figure who has showcased President Trump’s hard-line policies to the rest of world with a smile.

But a compliment last month from Joseph R. Biden Jr., the former vice president on the verge of announcing his own candidacy, thrust Mr. Pence into the 2020...