Former Vice President Mike Pence has filed paperwork to jump into the 2024 presidential primary for the Republican nomination, setting up a clash with former President Donald Trump.
Pence has long been expected to enter the race and is set to formally announce his candidacy on June 7.
Pence, who served as governor of Indiana prior to becoming vice president, will enter a growing field of candidates competing for the nomination, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
The former vice president has long sought to market himself as a “classical conservative,” pushing for a return to the pre-Trump Republican Party.
As he mounts a bid to challenge his former running mate, Pence will likely seek to distinguish himself from Trump on socially conservative grounds. It’s thought that Trump placed Pence on the ticket in 2016 to draw in the support of social conservatives, as many on the right viewed the New Yorker as too socially liberal. The same strategy will likely characterize his 2024 bid.
Pence has often described himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.”
Although he served as Trump’s vice president, the two increasingly grew apart in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. Pence has called it “a tragic day” and one for which he said that “history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
At the time, Trump tried to convince Pence to use a disputed power under the 12th Amendment to refuse certification of electoral slates from contested states where Trump said the results were plagued by widespread voter fraud.
Pence refused repeated efforts by the former president to use this power and has characterized Trump’s efforts as a danger to American political norms. Pence argued that acceding to Trump’s request would have prompted a constitutional crisis.
“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said of the matter.
“I had no right to overturn the election. And [Trump’s] reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
On the other hand, he has resisted efforts from both the now-defunct House Jan. 6 panel and other inquiries for investigations into the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and has suggested that some “irregularities” characterized the 2020 election.
Rejection of Populism
Pence recently called on conservatives to reject the “siren song of populism.”“I believe we have to resist the politics of personality and the siren song of populism unmoored to timeless conservative principles, and we need to stand firm on the conservative agenda of life and liberty and a commitment to freedom that has always led us to victory,” he said on June 3 in Iowa.
“Our movement cannot forsake the foundational commitment that we have to security, to limited government, to liberty, and to life. But nor can we allow our movement to be led astray by the siren song of unprincipled populism that’s unmoored from our oldest traditions and most cherished values.
“There’s a healthy debate going on within our movement today. Some in our movement long for a simple return to the traditional conservative agenda of the Reagan era. Others say our movement should be swept along by a new and energetic sense of populism.”
For most of the Trump administration, Pence played the role of a loyal subordinate to Trump, defending administration wins as Trump’s.
He led the administration’s COVID-19 task force, overseeing Operation Warp Speed, which ultimately produced the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.
Since leaving the White House, Pence has joined the Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow.
Pence has expressed support for Ukraine in the Russo–Ukrainian conflict, acknowledging that it’s “not America’s war” but saying that the United States should nonetheless seek to back Ukraine to defend international freedom.
“Make no mistake: This is not America’s war. But if we falter in our commitment to providing the support to the people of Ukraine to defend their freedom, our sons and daughters may soon be called upon to defend ours,” Pence told an audience at The University of Texas at Austin in February.
“If we surrender to the siren song of those in this country who argue that America has no interest in freedom’s cause, history teaches we may soon send our own into harm’s way to defend our freedom and the freedom of nations in our alliance.”
Despite the personal feud between Trump and Pence, Trump has focused much of his efforts on DeSantis, considered the runner-up for the nomination.
Most polls have Pence well behind Trump, polling equally with figures such as Haley, but lagging when compared to the double-digit leads enjoyed by Trump and DeSantis.
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