Former US Vice President Mike Pence, who held office from 2017 to 2021, filed on Monday (5) documentation with the US Federal Election Commission to run in the Republican Party primaries for the 2024 presidential election. .
Pence plans to officially launch the candidacy with a speech Wednesday in Iowa, coinciding with his 64th birthday, and later the same day he plans to attend a citizen meeting organized by broadcaster CNN in Des Moines, capital of this state.
In this way, Pence joins an extensive list of candidates for the Republican nomination for the US presidency, such as former President Donald Trump; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley; former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson; and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
In addition to them, entrepreneurs Vivek Ramaswamy, Ryan Binkley and Perry Johnson, as well as radio host Larry Elder, also presented their pre-applications.
According to the weighted average of polls conducted by the website FiveThirtyEight, Trump is the favorite to win the Republican nomination for the US presidency, followed by DeSantis, Pence, Haley and Ramaswamy.
Pence counts as an asset the four years he served as vice president during Trump’s term. Prior to that, he was Congressman from 2001 to 2013 and Governor of Indiana (2013 to 2017).
The former vice president is supported by the Super PAC (political action committee, organization that collects and organizes electoral donations) Committed to America, which he launched in mid-May and which he chairs along with former Texas congressman Jeb Hensarling and veteran Republican consultant Scott Reed.
A man of deep religious convictions, Pence may have a strong appeal among evangelical voters, whom he frequently addresses by talking about his faith and the issues that matter to them, such as pro-life and pro-religious freedom policies.
In this sense, Pence made it clear that he supports states that pass more restrictive laws against abortion and believes that the abortion pill mifepristone, the most used in the US to terminate pregnancy, should not be marketed.
At the federal level, he defended the adoption of legislation that prohibits abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy.
During the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Pence, who on that day was serving as President of the Senate by virtue of his role as Vice President, ignored Trump’s calls to obstruct the ratification of Democrat Joe Biden as US President.
This attitude alienated former running mates – the former president called Pence’s behavior “a stab in the back”.
However, in late March of this year, when news broke that Trump would be indicted by a grand jury in New York in a case related to the alleged payment for silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels, Pence declared at a conservative event that the indictment was an “outrage” and “political harassment” by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, affiliated with the Democratic Party.
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