Former Vice President Mike Pence announced via video Wednesday that he will be running for president.
“It would be easy to stay on the sidelines,” Pence is heard saying in the video. “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.”
Pence, who turned 64 on Wednesday, released the launch video that takes aim at President Joe Biden while not directly calling out GOP frontrunner former President Donald Trump by name.
“President Joe Biden and the radical left have weakened America at home and abroad,” Pence says in the self-narrated 2½-minute video. “We can turn this country around. But different times call for different leadership.”
“Today, our party and our country need a leader that will appeal, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature.”
The former vice president on Monday filed paperwork to officially join the race for the Republican nomination, though he has for months been laying the groundwork for a campaign for the nomination, the Des Moines Register reported.
Pence will speak in person in Des Moines, Iowa, Wednesday and participate in a CNN town hall Wednesday night.
The announcement comes a day after former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced his intention to enter the race in what is becoming a crowded GOP field.
According to The Wall Street Journal, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also plans to announce on Wednesday that he will run for the GOP nomination for president. On Tuesday, he penned an op-ed in the Journal explaining why he is making a run for president in 2024.
Others who have officially announced that they are running for the Republican nomination include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina.
Biden, Robert Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson have all declared their candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
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
