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Mike Pence, the former vice president of the United States, will run as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. Photo/Reuters
NEW YORK – Former Republican Vice President Mike Pence is predicted to announce his candidacy as a presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election. He will run against Donald Trump who was his boss.
Reuters reports that Pence will launch his campaign with videos and speeches in the state carrying out Iowa’s initial bid. A staunch social conservative who supported Trump throughout his reign, Pence has increasingly distanced himself from the former Republican president since his election defeat.
Pence began to distance himself from Trump since his move to anger Donald Trump by refusing to support his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. He has also said that Trump’s encouragement of the rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, put him and his family in danger.
Trump is actually leading in opinion polls against about 10 candidates. The average support for Pence at opinion polls is less than 4%, compared to Trump’s 53%.
If Pence runs for president in 2024, he could face other Trump aides like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the race for the Republican nomination.
Here are 7 facts about former vice president Mike Pence who is about to run as the Republican presidential candidate.
1. Carrying Consensus
Photo/Reuters
Pence while portraying himself as a balanced and consensus-oriented alternative. He also appealed more directly to the evangelical Christian community, having spent much time in recent months touring major churches across the country.
The success of his campaign will depend on whether Pence can attract enough supporters of Trump’s policies turned off by the former president’s rhetoric and behavior to build a viable coalition. Pence – a former governor of Indiana and a former party leader in the US House of Representatives – will also test voters’ appetite for the established Republican Party in a party where voters are increasingly turning to outsiders.
2. Once a Trump Loyalist
A former governor and US congressman, Pence has been at the center of some of the Trump administration’s major legislative wins, including tax cuts passed in 2017. He is also his handling of the coronavirus pandemic as head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
About 230,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States, the highest death toll for a single country in the world, and the government has been widely criticized for undermining calls by health experts for widespread use of masks and social distancing.
Pence has been Trump’s main defender during the chaos of the pandemic and has frequently turned against factions in the White House. He maintained his own influence by developing a close relationship with the former New York businessman.
Reducing taxes and regulations, advancing anti-abortion policies, and changing the judiciary with conservative and supreme court justices are among the policy changes Pence is most proud of.
