Mike Pence, a former vice president of the United States, officially announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Monday. He is making an improbable effort to unseat Donald Trump, his former employer, and take the party’s presidential nomination in an effort to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden.
Conservative Pence, the former governor of Indiana, served as Trump’s No. 2 for four years, but they fell out after Pence refused to overturn congressional certification of the results of the 2020 election, which showed they had lost. This refusal resulted in a riot on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, resulting in the arrest of over 1,000 people.
Pence, who lacked the legal authority to void the election, fled for cover that day, hiding with his family and their security detail in a Capitol loading dock as demonstrators chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” and constructed mock gallows on the National Mall just outside the Capitol.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done,” Trump tweeted. Trump “endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day,” according to Vice President Pence, and history will hold him responsible. A grand jury looking into Trump called Pence to testify more recently.
Pence is now attempting to persuade Republican voters that he, not Trump or a number of other announced or expected contenders, deserves the Republican presidential candidacy.
The Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is in second place in the nomination race, about 30 percentage points behind Trump, according to national Republican polls. Pence and other candidates are even further behind with less than 5% support each. This is despite the fact that Trump is under investigation for multiple crimes related to his presidency.
On his 64th birthday, Pence will publicly announce his candidacy for president in Iowa, a state in the Midwest that will host the Republican Party’s primary election for president the following year. He filed papers with the Federal Election Commission on Monday to formally announce his campaign.
Pence, who has often referred to himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” plans to engage in a significant amount of campaigning in Iowa in an effort to win over evangelical Christians who support his adamant anti-abortion stance and other right-wing beliefs.
He has positioned himself in early campaign sparring as liking many of the policies from his time serving as Trump’s White House adviser, but with a cool demeanor and without the regular turbulence of the Trump administration.
Advisors believe that Pence is the only classic conservative running for president, evoking memories of Ronald Reagan’s administration as the nation’s leader in the 1980s. Pence has cautioned against the rising populist trend in the Republican Party.
In addition to his conservative stance on cultural matters, Pence has criticized Republicans who are “Putin apologists” and afraid to speak out against Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also argued that the United States should back Ukraine more vigorously against Russia’s military incursion.
Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas, are among the Republican contenders for president. Pence is the newest addition to the group. The former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, intends to start his own campaign in New Hampshire on Tuesday night. The governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, also intends to run for office.
