Mike Pence launches 2024 GOP presidential campaign

Launching his campaign, the former vice-president immediately questioned the conservatism and leadership of his ex-boss, Donald Trump.

Former US Vice President and 2024 presidential hopeful Mike Penceembraces wife Karen Pence before speaking at a campaign launch event in Iowa. Picture: AFP.

Former Vice President Mike Pence joined the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race Wednesday and immediately questioned the conservatism and leadership of his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump.

“When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 he promised to govern as a conservative, and together we did just that,” Pence said in his announcement speech. “But today, he makes no such promise.” Pence challenged Trump’s commitment to secure further abortion restrictions and suggested the former president was “retreating” on the issue, one central to many GOP primary voters.

“The sanctity of life has been our party’s calling for half a century, long before Donald Trump was a part of it,” he said. “Now, he treats it as an inconvenience, even blaming our election losses in 2022 on overturning Roe v. Wade.” The former president nominated three justices to the Supreme Court, creating a conservative majority that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion last year. More recently, he has expressed scepticism about any national abortion bans, as some Republicans have called for.

A spokesman for Trump’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Pence’s criticisms.

Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for a super PAC backing Trump, said in a statement that “the question most GOP voters are asking themselves about Pence’s candidacy is ‘Why?’” Pence’s entry into the race came the same day as that of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. After a flurry of candidate announcements in May and early June, including one Tuesday by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the GOP field appears to be mostly set.

Karen Pence looks on as former US Vice President and 2024 Presidential hopeful Mike Pence speaks during his campaign launch. Picture: AFP.

The former vice president launched his bid from Iowa, the state that starts the nomination process early next year. He plans to focus heavily on the state, where he has long been popular among the social conservatives and evangelical Christians who dominate its GOP caucuses.

“We can defend our liberties and give America a new beginning for life,” Pence said. “But it will require new leadership – in the White House and the Republican Party.” Trump leads national polls of Republicans, but nomination races have been known to deliver unexpected results, and GOP activists in states that host the first contests have expressed an openness to candidates other than Trump. Surveys of the 2024 GOP primary field have shown Pence in the low single digits.

The latest entries add to an already crowded field that also includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, multi-millionaire biotech company founder Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador.

Pence, who turns 64 years old on the day of his announcement, cast himself as a conservative on economic, security and social issues. He has hawkish foreign-policy views that are at odds with some segments of the GOP, including advocating for strong U.S. support for Ukraine.

He has said he would support a national ban on abortion at six weeks of pregnancy. And he has differed from some fellow Republicans by calling for changes to Medicare and Social Security to shore up their solvency.

Through nearly all of his four years serving as vice president, Pence was a loyal sidekick, standing by Trump during the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the impeachment of the president by the House and the tumultuous response to the coronavirus pandemic.

He publicly broke with the former president, however, after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Pence refused to go along with Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, leading some Capitol rioters to call for his hanging. He was at the Capitol that day to certify Joe Biden’s victory and was rushed out as the mob swarmed the building.

“On that fateful day, President Trump’s words were reckless and he endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol,” Pence said Wednesday in his speech. “On that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the constitution and I always will.” While Pence wants to make a forward-looking pitch as a candidate, he continues to grapple with the riot’s aftermath. In April, he testified before a grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election.

Arguing the country is ready for a fresh start, Pence is hoping to remind people of Trump-era policies, which he dubs “Trump-Pence,” while offering a contrast with the former president’s steady boil of controversy and election denialism.

Trump tapped Pence as his vice presidential pick in July 2016, hoping the then Indiana governor and former congressman and conservative radio talk-show host would appeal to Midwestern voters and traditional conservatives, in particular the religious right wing of the party.

Burgum, 66 years old, was first elected in 2016. He isn’t well-known nationally and will face a challenge building name recognition in a field with much better-known candidates.

But he could use his fortune to help boost his prospects. Burgum built Great Plains Software from a small start-up into a company acquired by Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001.

Two people familiar with his planning told The Wall Street Journal late last month that he has always invested in his companies and campaigns and would do the same if he runs.

In an announcement speech Wednesday in front of several hundred in Fargo, N.D., Burgum stressed small-town values, his experience as a business executive and innovator, and familiarity with working-class jobs.

“We need a leader who understands the real work that Americans do everyday, someone who has worked alongside our farmers, our ranchers and our small-business owners,” he said. “Someone who has held jobs where you shower at the end of the day, not the beginning.” Known for a casual style and noninflammatory rhetoric, Burgum would stand in contrast to Trump and called for greater civility in politics.

“In a country built on neighbours helping neighbours, we’ve become a country of neighbours fighting neighbours,” he said. “We should all be fighting to unite the country against our common enemies like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and the drug cartels.” In April, Burgum signed into law a near-total ban on abortion that permits the procedure in cases of rape and incest only in the first six weeks of pregnancy. The law also makes an exception in the case of a serious physical health risk to a mother.

He also signed legislation this year that prohibits public schools and government entities from requiring teachers and employees to refer to transgender people by the pronouns they use. The law also requires teachers to tell a parent or legal guardian if the student identifies as transgender, and prohibits transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice without prior approval from a parent or guardian.

Dow Jones