“Different times call for different leadership,” Pence says in a video released via Fox News and Twitter hours before a kickoff event in Des Moines.
“Today our party and our country need a leader who appeals, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature.”
Although “it would be easy to live on the sidelines,” he says, “I wasn’t raised that way. That’s why today, before God and my family, I’m announcing that I’m running for President of the United States of America.” “
Pence is betting his presidential hopes on Iowa as he launches a campaign that would make him the first vice president in modern history to take on his former running mate.
Pence’s campaign It will also test the party’s appetite for a socially conservative, mild-mannered and deeply religious candidate who has denounced the populist tide that has swept through his party under former President Donald Trump. Trump,
And it will show that whether or not Pence has a political future after January 6, 2021, a large portion of GOP voters are still believing Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen and that Pence should reject the results. had the power to do so.
Pence and his advisers see Iowa – the state that will vote on the first of the GOP nomination calendar – as key to his potential path to the nomination.
Its caucus goers include a sizable portion of evangelical Christian voters, whom they see as a natural constituency for Pence.
They also think that Pence, who represented Indiana in Congress and as governor, is a good fit with the Midwestern state.
“We believe the road to victory runs through Iowa and all 99 of its counties,” said Scott Reed, co-chair of the super PAC. Pence’s candidacy,
Iowa has generally been viewed as a launching pad for presidential candidates, giving momentum, money and attention to candidates who win or defy the hopefuls.
But recent past winners including Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have ultimately failed to win the nomination.
And Pence faces tough challenges. He enters the race as one of the best-known Republican candidates in a crowded GOP field that now includes Trump, Florida Gov.
Ron DeSantis, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson.
But Pence — seen by Trump critics as complicit with his most erratic actions and maligned as a traitor by Trump loyalists — is also saddled with high unfavorable ratings.
A CNN poll conducted last month found that 45% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they would not support Pence under any circumstances. Only 16 percent people said the same about Trump.
Pence’s favorability has also declined in Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.
In June 2021, shortly after he left office, 86 percent of Iowa Republicans said they had a favorable view of Pence. But the Register’s March Iowa poll showed that figure had dropped to 66%. The poll found Pence with higher unfavorable ratings than all other candidates, including Trump and DeSantis, with 26 percent of Republicans saying they had a “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable view of him.
And only 58 percent of Iowa evangelicals said they have favorable feelings toward Pence — an especially disappointing number, given his campaign strategy.
But Pence, who has visited Iowa more than a dozen times since leaving office, has also received warm receptions from voters during his visits.
During a ‘roast and ride’ event over the weekend that drew a long list of 2024 candidates, Pence turned out to be the only candidate to actually mount a Harley and participate in the event’s annual motorcycle ride.
When he arrived at a barbecue at the state fairgrounds, he easily moved from table to table, warmly greeting and chatting with attendees.
But skepticism toward Pence remains among many Republican voters, who adhere to the unfounded but persistent conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen.
Many cling to the lie that Pence was complicit in the plot to deny Trump a second term as he presided over a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, to reject the Electoral College vote. Trump’s pressure campaign was denied when hordes of Trump supporters stormed the building.
Pence’s advisers say they recognize the challenge and intend to explain directly to voters that Pence was performing his constitutional duty and never had the power to influence the vote in his formal role.
“I think it’s something you have to walk straight through,” said Mark Short, his longtime advisor.
After January 6, his team sees its primary goal as reintroducing Pence in a country that largely knows him as Trump’s second-in-command.
He wants to remind voters of his time in congressional leadership and as governor and is planning a heavy campaign with town halls, house parties and visits to local diners and Pizza Ranch restaurants — more intimate settings that will attract voters. Get to know them personally.
“People have seen Mike Pence as vice president. I think what people are going to see is Mike Pence,” said Todd Hudson, Speaker of the House in Indiana and a longtime Pence friend who helped with the outreach. signed to do. State Legislator.
“I’m so excited that people get to know the Mike Pence that I know, who is funny, who is just a wonderful person … Relax Mike Pence.”
Reid believes there is a strong desire in the party for a candidate like Pence, who supports Reagan-style conservatism including traditional social values, aggressive foreign policy and small government economics.
“We think this nomination fight is going to be an epic battle for the heart and soul of the conservative, traditional wing of the Republican Party. And Pence is going to campaign as a classic conservative. His credentials are unmatched,” he Said.
Unlike Trump and DeSantis, Pence has argued that cuts to Social Security and Medicare should be on the table and has criticized those who have questioned why the US should continue aid to Ukraine to counter Russian aggression. .
Reid said, “We’re not trying to outdo Trump Pence. Everyone is.” “Pence is the only candidate not to be Trump’s VP.”