Former Vice President Mike Pence officially entered the 2024 race for the White House on Wednesday morning, putting him in a battle against his former boss — Donald Trump — for the Republican nomination.
Pence made the announcement in a video message posted to social media, not mentioning Trump by name but saying it is time for new leadership in the Republican Party.
“We’re better than this. We can turn this country around, but different times call for different leadership. Today, our party and our country need a leader that will appeal, as [Abraham] Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature,” Pence said in the video. “It’d be easy to stay on the sidelines — but that’s not how I was raised. That’s why today, before God and my family, I’m announcing I’m running for president of the United States.”
Pence is expected to formally announce his campaign with family and supporters on Wednesday afternoon in Iowa before holding a town hall later in the evening.
Despite serving with Trump, the two men have been at odds ever since Pence did his constitutional duty and certified the 2020 election results, angering the former president. That prompted a pro-Trump mob to ascend on the U.S. Capitol and call for Pence to be hung.
Trump has always denied any wrongdoing in the matter.
Pence has a big hill to climb for the GOP nomination with Trump leading most polls to win the primary race with Florida governor Ron DeSantis closely behind in second place in the RealClearPolitics average of recent surveys.
The former vice president s in fourth place, behind Trump, DeSantis, and Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., with less than 4% of the vote.
Pence will be running on a traditional Republican platform of strong national defense, reductions in spending and conservative social policy.
