Former Vice President Mike Pence has officially filed paperwork to run for President of the United States in 2024 and confirmed his intention to hold an announcement event this week.
Pence officially filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission that marks the launch of his campaign for the 2024 Republican nomination, challenging his former boss – 45th President Donald Trump – despite polls showing him in single digits.
At U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst’s annual Roast and Ride motorcycle event, Pence told the audience to expect him to remain in Iowa for an official announcement on Wednesday.
“I’m here in Iowa today, and I’ll be back a little bit later next week,” Pence launched. “Because Iowa, Iowa was the place that we shaped principled conservative leadership, Iowa was the place that shaped the standard bearer of this party.”
He continued, “I have to tell you, over the last two years Karen and I have spent a lot of time reflecting and praying about everything this country’s dealing with and what we might do to serve. And I don’t have anything to announce today, but I can tell you: When I got time to announce, come this Wednesday, I’m announcing in Iowa.”
.@Mike_Pence Teases 2024 Run: “Come This Wednesday, I’m Announcing in Iowa” pic.twitter.com/VUuZmyKH8g
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 5, 2023
As rumors began to swirl regarding Pence’s intentions to run for the White House last year, Trump took a rare swipe at Pence for refusing to play a pivotal role in his efforts following the 2020 election.
Trump and many of his supporters believe Pence had a constitutional duty on January 6, 2021 to refuse to hand-off slates of electors from key battleground states where Republicans claimed there was clear and abundant evidence of voter fraud or other election malfeasance.
Pence ultimately issued a statement declaring he did not have the ability to act and certified the 2020 election, removing all certainty that Joe Biden would become the 46th President of the United States.
Trump’s statements came in response to a Democrat-led effort to strip the Vice President of any such power, which the former president asserted would not be necessary if Pence, indeed, was powerless that day.
“I don’t care whether they change The Electoral Count Act or not, probably better to leave it the way it is so that it can be adjusted in case of Fraud, but what I don’t like are the lies and ‘disinformation,’ put out by the Democrats and RINOS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last year.
“They said the Vice President has ‘absolutely no choice,’ it was carved in ‘steel,’ but if he has no choice, why are they changing the law saying he has no choice?”
