Former vice president Mike Pence released a three-minute video announcing his 2024 presidential campaign Wednesday morning, casting himself as a transitional leader who can undo the damage of the Biden administration and move the country past the infighting of the Trump presidency.
Pence, who filed to run on Monday, will give a speech in Des Moines, Iowa Wednesday afternoon and participate in a CNN town hall in the evening.
“Today, our country’s in a lot of trouble. President Joe Biden and the radical left have weakened America at home and abroad,” Pence says as ominous images flash on screen. “The American dream is being crushed under runaway inflation. Wages are dropping. Recession is looming. Our Southern border is under siege and the enemies of freedom are on the march around the world. And worse still, timeless American values are under assault as never before. We’re better than this.”
“Different times call for different leadership. Today, our party and our country need a leader who will appeal, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature,” he goes on to say.
I believe in the American people, and I have faith God is not done with America yet. Together, we can bring this Country back, and the best days for the Greatest Nation on Earth are yet to come! 🇺🇸 #Pence2024 pic.twitter.com/A8EkqgCDAm
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) June 7, 2023
“I have long believed, to whom much is given, much will be required,” explained Pence. “My family and I have been blessed beyond measure with opportunities to serve this nation, and it’d be easy to stay on the sidelines. But that’s not how I was raised. That’s why today, before God and my family, I’m announcing I’m running for president of the United States.”
The former vice president, who is very outspoken about his Christian beliefs, is expected to focus his campaign on winning Iowa, the nation’s first contest, where evangelical voters hold sway.
Pence did not mention Trump by name, indicating he will focus on his own vision for the future instead of relitigating the events of the Trump administration.
Appearing on CNN, Representative Greg Pence (R., Ind.), who has endorsed his brother, confirmed this would be the case.
“He’s not going to look back. He’s going to talk about his vision for America moving forward,” the congressman explained.
The video, entitled “Best Days,” asserts that the country can get back to economic and civil liberties which have been cast to the side. The video features a photo of a young Pence meeting former president Ronald Reagan, whom Pence frequently invokes when explaining his conservative worldview and the policies that flow from it.
“President Reagan described us as a shining city on a hill and above all, he called on Americans to renew optimism and believe in themselves again, to believe in each other,” Pence said.