ANKENY, Iowa — Former Vice President Mike Pence formally launched his 2024 bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday, clearly stating that the party and the nation should “never” allow his onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, back into the White House.
Mr. Pence said Mr. Trump scored conservative wins as president but started to lose his way as he pressured his vice president to overstep constitutional authority and refuse to certify President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s 2020 victory.
“The American people must know that we will keep our oath to support and defend the Constitution even when it is not in our political interests,” Mr. Pence said at his campaign launch at the Des Moines Area Community College.
“Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again,” he said.
Mr. Pence’s plunge brings a Robin versus Batman storyline to a race that will test whether voters have an appetite for Mr. Pence’s push for more civility in politics and for the Republican Party to return to classical conservatism. Mr. Pence’s campaign focuses on building a strong national defense, promoting freedom around the globe, cutting spending and taxes, and defending traditional values that he says are under threat from Mr. Biden and far-left Democrats.
Mr. Pence is sharing some of the spotlight this week with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who also have made official bids for the Republican presidential nomination.
SEE ALSO: Pence rips Trump over Ukraine: ‘I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal’
On Wednesday, Mr. Pence hoped to thread the needle between touting the accomplishments of the Trump-Pence administration and putting daylight between himself and Mr. Trump.
Mr. Pence said the end of Roe v. Wade, which provided a constitutional right to abortion, is just the beginning of the fight over abortion. He accused Mr. Trump of retreating on the hot-button issue.
“The sanctity of life has been our party’s calling for half a century, long before Donald Trump was ever a part of it,” he said. “Now he treats it as an inconvenience, even blaming election losses on overturning Roe v. Wade.”
Mr. Pence called for “common-sense” changes to Social Security and Medicare. He said the programs need to be on firmer financial footing.
He said the United States must support Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Mr. Pence said Republicans must abandon the “siren song of populism” and move away from the politics of “outrage” and “grievance.”
SEE ALSO: Pence says he has ‘no interest’ in pardoning Jan. 6 lawbreakers
“Here in Iowa, we must resolve that Joe Biden is never reelected as president of the United States,” Mr. Pence said, drawing applause from the crowd. “We must elect a new Republican president and chart a course for our nation guided by our timeless principles.”
Mr. Pence vowed to bolster the military, cut federal taxes and regulations, and reduce spending that he said is driving inflation.
He pledged to make the nation “energy independent once again,” to empower parents in schools, and to appoint pro-life judges.
“In all this work,” Mr. Pence said, “we will not seek to divide the American people but instead appeal to the better angels of their nature.”
For Mr. Pence, 64, Iowa is a pivotal battleground fraught with challenges from both sides.
The former vice president is poised to face off with die-hard Trump supporters who say he betrayed the president after the 2020 election.
Mr. Pence also is facing off with Republicans who say he enabled Mr. Trump and missed his chance to be a stronger check on the president’s actions.
“He knows those hurdles full well,” Bob Vander Plaats told The Washington Times. “I think he is willing to have that debate with those [voters] who question his decision on Jan. 6 and for those who question his loyalty to the president for four years.
“I think Mike Pence is saying people are very interested in the bold, courageous vision and the mission the Trump administration was able to deliver for four years, but they want to do it without all the drama,” said Mr. Vander Plaats, president of the Iowa Christian conservative group the Family Leader.
“I think he is going to be the slow and steady [candidate] in the race, for those who are looking for an alternative to Trump, [but] can’t find what it is they are looking for. Then they might fall to the former vice president because he has been a trusted voice for them,” he said.
Limited polling in Iowa shows Mr. Pence running in the single digits, battling it out for third place with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, businessmen Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Mr. Trump is the clear front-runner, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Everyone else is trailing in the single digits.
Legal challenges, however, threaten to undermine Mr. Trump’s campaign, bringing a sense of uncertainty to the early stages of the primary contest.
Mr. Pence’s political DNA has resonated with the self-identified born-again and evangelical Christians who dominate the Republican caucuses in Iowa.
The former Indiana governor has made his Christian faith central to his political identity. On Wednesday, he told the Iowa crowd, “I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican — in that order.”
Mr. Trump’s choice of Mr. Pence as the vice presidential nominee in 2016 helped reassure evangelical Christians. Mr. Trump had no ties to the movement and was widely known for tabloid affairs.
Marge Delzell, 83, said Mr. Pence walks the walk and she plans to caucus for him.
“He is a good man, he is a godly man, he has lots of experience and he has shown he stands strong,” said Ms. Delzell, who drove three hours to Ankeny with her son David from Sioux City. “When I saw him standing by Trump so many times, and he liked some of the policies but not necessarily the attitude, and he didn’t show it.”
“He was a faithful vice president,” she said, dismissing criticism over the certification of the 2020 election results. “I think they are absolutely misguided. What Trump wanted him to do, he couldn’t do. He just constitutionally couldn’t do it.
“Trump is so many good things, but he isn’t right on everything,” she said.
It remains to be seen whether Mr. Pence’s style will resonate with primary voters, who have grown accustomed to Mr. Trump’s brazen, no-holds-barred approach to politics.
Bernie Hayes, chairman of the Linn County Republican Party, said Mr. Trump still appears to have the upper hand based on the massive crowds at his campaign events.
“Unless Trump stumbles badly, you know, things could change. It is still a hard road for the others to overcome,” said Mr. Hayes, who is staying neutral in the race because of his role as party leader.
The good news for Mr. Pence is that candidates who wore their religious faith on their sleeves won the past three competitive Iowa caucuses. They were Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in 2016, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania in 2012 and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008.
Mr. Santorum and Mr. Huckabee won accolades for traversing all corners of the state, courting voters in churches, backyard barbecues and Pizza Ranch restaurants, which have become crucial stops for candidates running under the Republican banner.
The bad news for Mr. Pence is that none of those men went on to win the presidential nomination.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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