Former Vice President Mike Pence is officially entering the 2024 race for president by filing paperwork Monday with the Federal Election Commission, setting up a battle with former President Donald Trump and other GOP hopefuls.
Pence will kick off his 2024 bid for the presidency in a Des Moines, Iowa, rally on June 7, DailyMail.com confirmed last week. He will then head to New Hampshire and other early voting states to lay out his message to voters.
He is also set to participate in a CNN town hall in Iowa with Dana Bash following his official kick-off rally Wednesday – which also falls on his 64th birthday. The former vice president joins a growing field of GOP hopefuls including his old boss former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is also expected to join the race Wednesday
Pence, who hails from Indiana, has been teasing a 2024 presidential bid for months and attended Sen. Joni Ernst’s Roast & Ride event last weekend in Iowa, a known ‘cattle call’ event for presidential contenders.
He served for 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and for four years in Indiana as the state’s governor.
Pence, is known for his signature pro-life views, which he says he is ‘unapologetic’ about. He also has backed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and fully supports giving aide to help Ukraine against Russia’s attacks.
He holds Reagan-era views on conservatism and separate federal and states rights.
The former vice president has zig zagged across early voting states for the last several months, building momentum with the voting base.
He will now officially come head-to-head with his former boss, Donald Trump, as the 2024 primary competition heats up.
The former vice president is polling behind Trump and DeSantis in recent polls at around six percent.
Trump has held a steady lead over the GOP pack, as support for DeSantis has dwindled.
Pence laid out his ideal ‘standard-bearer’ for the Republican Party during a Federalist Society conference in Washington, D.C., last month.
‘I believe that we as conservatives hold the keys we hold the solutions for America. But but but our challenge is to express those in a way that allows us to move our nation forward and I believe we can,’ Pence said, referring to the 2024 election.
Pence slammed the Biden administration’s record in office as a ‘disaster’ and continues to compare the achievements of the Trump-Pence administration to the failing policies of the current leadership.
The first time Pence made a jab at former President Donald Trump was before a similar crowd of conservative legal leaders over a year ago in February 2022.
In his first real rebuke of the former president, Pence told the Federalist Society crowd in Florida: ‘President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.’
The former vice president did not fight the subpoena, despite Trump’s attorneys who were ready to intervene on his behalf and seek executive privilege immunity.
Last week, Pence was informed by the Department of Justice that he will not face charges for having classified documents in his Indiana home.
DOJ sent a letter to Pence’s attorney on Thursday confirming there will be no criminal charges, days before he is set to enter the White House race.
The FBI searched his $1.9 million home in Carmel, Indiana, in February and found sensitive files with classified markings.
The content of the documents are still not clear, but the federal government’s top prosecutors have decided not to take any further action.
Meanwhile the classified documents probe into his old boss Donald Trump has appeared to heat up, and a special counsel is also looking into classified documents found in President Joe Biden’s Delaware home and lobbying office in Washington.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
