Former Vice President Mike Pence could soon be the latest Republican to join a growing field of candidates challenging former President Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024.
After months of speculation, Pence is expected to formally launch his campaign June 7 in Iowa, home to many Christian right voters he’s hoping to court. His biggest challenge will be stepping out from the shadow of Trump, his one-time running mate from whom he has severed ties.
He previously told CNBC that the GOP is “going to have better choices” than the former president. And in an interview with NPR last November, he said he thought Trump was “wrong” in insisting that he won the 2020 election and that he was “reckless” with his words and actions on the day of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
That might not win him any favor among Trump loyalists. But as a prominent evangelical, Pence is hoping to appeal to religious conservatives’ views on abortion, religious liberty, and education. He already seems to be doing so, promoting his memoir, So Help Me God, at megachurches around the country.
Though the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade dampened GOP gains in the midterms, Pence hasn’t tempered his anti-abortion rhetoric. He has called for a national abortion ban and has thrown his weight behind a proposal by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and a ban on abortion pills.
Beyond abortion, Pence’s policy group, Advancing American Freedom, has laid out a platform that includes an expansion of 529 college savings plans so they can be used for K-12 schools, promoting the rights of health care providers to decline to…
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