Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork Monday to run for president, setting up a showdown in the Republican nomination race with his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump.
Mr. Pence plans to formally launch his campaign Wednesday in Iowa and is slated to headline a CNN town hall later that day.
Mr. Pence, 63, who also served as governor of Indiana and as a member of Congress, faces a steep climb in the GOP nominating contest.
He barely registers in polls and has fallen out of favor with a large swath of GOP voters because he refused to kowtow to Mr. Trump’s stolen election claims.
Still, Mr. Pence sees a path to victory that centers on a message steeped in traditional conservative tenets of limited government. He will be looking to strike a balance between touting the accomplishments of the Trump-Pence administration while distancing himself from Mr. Trump where he can on policy.
Mr. Pence did just that over the weekend, criticizing Mr. Trump for congratulating North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un for getting a seat on the World Health Organization’s executive board.
“Whether it’s my former running mate or anyone else, nobody should be praising the dictator in North Korea or praising the leader in Russia who has launched an unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine,” Mr. Pence said. “This is a time when we ought to make it clear to the world that we stand for freedom and we stand with those who stand for freedom.”
Mr. Pence also has separated himself from Mr. Trump by advocating changes to Social Security, which has enough funds to pay full benefits for another 11 years, on firmer financial footing over the long haul.
Mr. Pence will be sharing headlines this week with former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. Both of them are expected to enter the GOP race, expanding the field to 12 candidates.
Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, meanwhile, announced Monday he was passing on a run for the GOP nomination, ending months of speculation about his future and whether his moderate brand of politics would sell in a primary race.
Mr. Sununu also called on candidates that fail to gain any traction in the polls to pull out of the race by Christmas to increase the chances for an alternative to Mr. Trump to emerge.
“The stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35 percent of the vote, and I will help to ensure this does not happen,” Mr. Sununu tweeted.
Mr. Pence is polling in the low single digits nationally and in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two stops on the Republican’s nomination calendar.
Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, welcomed Mr. Pence into the race in the same fashion he has responded to other GOP White House hopefuls: tying him to Mr. Trump.
“Pence pushed an extreme agenda in Congress and the Indiana statehouse before becoming Donald Trump’s MAGA wingman for four years and then campaigning for election deniers last year,” Mr. Harrison said. “Pence’s entrance will no doubt drag an increasingly MAGA 2024 GOP field even further to the extremes.”
• Dave Boyer and Tom Howell Jr. contributed to this story.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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