Former US Vice President Mike Pence has filed paperwork declaring his campaign for president in 2024.
The announcement sets him up against former President Donald Trump, the current frontrunner and Pence’s former boss – just two years after their time in the White House ended with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and Pence fleeing for his life.
He filled the required form with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, June 5, to mount a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
The former vice president is expected to launch his campaign with a speech in Iowa on Wednesday.
The Hawkeye State is a top priority for the emerging Pence campaign, and the former vice president is planning to visit the state almost weekly.
He is expected to make a considerable effort to appeal to evangelical voters, a crucial voting bloc in the state and one which he can appeal to given his own identity as an evangelical Christian.
In an interview earlier this year with CBS News, Pence twice declined to commit to supporting Trump if Trump is the Republican presidential nominee.
Instead, Pence said he thinks ‘different times call for different leadership.’
Pence joins a growing field of other well-known Republican candidates that includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott and former Gov. Nikki Haley.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is also planning to enter the race on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with Burgum’s plans, while former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is jumping into the race on Tuesday, bringing the total number of Republican candidates into double digits.
The number of candidates vying for the nomination concerns many Trump opponents inside the Republican Party who fear the anti-Trump vote could be split, handing the party’s nomination to the former president.
Pence has spent much of the last two years touring early-nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire to reinforce his political vision as a ‘Christian, conservative, Republican – in that order.’
He is framing himself as a traditional Republican, concerned with fiscal responsibility and family values, who can deliver Trump’s economic policies without the drama.
