Washington, June 5 (EFE).- Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday filed documentation with the Federal Election Commission to join the Republican primary race hoping to capture the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination.
Pence is scheduled to officially launch his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination with a speech in Iowa on Wednesday, an event designed to coincide with his 64th birthday, and later that same day he will participate in a town hall meeting with citizens organized by CNN in Des Moines, the state capital.
Pence is joining a growing field of hopefuls for the Republican presidential nod, including former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
In addition, businessmen Vivek Ramaswamy, Ryan Binkley and Perry Johnson have announced their candidacies, along with talk-show host Larry Elder, all of them hoping to be the one to go up against Democratic President Joe Biden, who has announced that he is running for reelection and – barring unforeseen circumstances – will be his party’s nominee.
According to the weighted average of voter surveys conducted by the FiveThirtyEight Web site, Trump is currently the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination, followed by DeSantis, Pence, Haley and Ramaswamy, although all of them are trailing him by double digits.
Pence apparently considers his presidential chances to be good given the fact that he served as Trump’s vice president from 2017-2021 and previously served from 2001-2013 in the US House of Representatives and as governor of Indiana from 2013-2017.
He is supported by the Committed to America super-PAC, which he launched in mid-May and which he jointly runs along with former Texas Congressman Jeb Hensarling and veteran Republican political consultant Scott Reed. A super-PAC is a fundraising organization that can take in donations from individuals, corporations and unions and spend unlimited amounts of money to back candidates.
A man of deep religious convictions, Pence could receive significant support from evangelist voters, to whom he often directs his remarks when speaking about his faith and the issues that are important to that group, including anti-abortion policies and policies favoring religious freedom.
In that regard, Pence has made clear that he supports the moves by certain states to approve laws to further restrict access to abortion, and he has said he believes that the Mifepristone abortion pill, the one most-used in the US to interrupt unwanted pregnancies, should not be marketed.
On the federal level, Pence has said that a law should be put on the books banning abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy.
During the assault on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by Trump supporters, Pence, who on that day was acting in his role as president of the Senate, ignored Trump’s calls to block the ratification by Congress of Democrat Joe Biden’s November 2020 presidential election win.
EFE ssa/bpm/bp
