Former Vice President Mike Pence presented his papers on Monday to declare his campaign for the presidency in 2024, posing a challenge to his former boss, Donald Trump, just two years after his time in the White House ended with an insurrection in the United States Capitol and Pence fleeing for his life.
Pence, the nation’s 48th vice president, will formally launch his bid for the Republican nomination with a video and event in Des Moines, Iowa, on his 64th birthday on Wednesday, according to people familiar with his plans. Today he has made his candidacy official before the Federal Electoral Commission.
While Trump currently leads the early fight for the nomination, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in second, Pence supporters see a lane for a trusted conservative who embraces many of the previous administration’s policies, but without the constant tumult.
While he often lauds the achievements of the “Trump-Pence government,” a Pence nomination would in many ways mark a return to positions associated with the Republican establishment but abandoned when Trump reshaped the party in his image. Pence has warned against the rising populist tide in the party, and aides see him as the only traditional, Reagan-style conservative in the race.
A staunch opponent of abortion rights, Pence supports a national ban on the procedure and has campaigned against gender-affirming policies in schools. He has argued that changes to Social Security and Medicare, such as raising the age of eligibility, need to be on the table to keep the programs solvent — which both Trump and DeSantis have opposed, and he criticized DeSantis. for his growing feud with Disney. He has also said the United States should offer Ukraine more support against Russian aggression, while admonishing “Putin apologists” in the party who are unwilling to take on the Russian leader.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
