With Mike Pence, another political heavyweight has entered the race for the US presidency. The 64-year-old former Vice President of the United States officially announced in a campaign video on his birthday on Wednesday: “Today I announce before God and my family that I am running for President of the United States.” He believes in the American people and has faith that God is not finished with America, said the arch-conservative politician and evangelical Christian. The “best days for the greatest nation on earth are yet to come”.
Mike Pence attacks Donald Trump
But before Pence can actually run for president, he must first win the Republican primaries – and in doing so remove his former boss Donald Trump from the field. He immediately set his sights on this: “No one who places themselves above the constitution should become President of the United States,” the Republican called out to his supporters in the state of Iowa at the start of the election campaign. “And no one who asks anyone else to put themselves above the Constitution should ever again become President of the United States.”
On January 6, 2021, the day Congress was stormed, Trump asked him to choose between himself and the Constitution, Pence said. “Voters are now confronted with the same question. I voted for the constitution and I always will.” The then vice president, as chairman of the Senate, refused to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory despite pressure from Trump and his supporters.
But Trump isn’t Mike Pence’s only competitor in the Grand Old Party primaries. In the photo series above you can see which Republicans still want to stand for their party against Incumbent President Joe Biden.