Mike Pence announces presidential bid

Following Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, the former US Vice President in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, has also announced his presidential candidacy.

According to pre-election polls, Trump is currently by far the most popular among Republican-leaning voters in America.

The 63-year-old Pence is expected to officially launch his campaign on Wednesday, June 7.

The former Indiana governor and congressman has distanced himself from his former boss since the deadly January 2021 riots, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

The former vice president said in March that Trump's encouragement of the rioters „endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day.“.

The race for the Republican presidential nomination begins next February, and the candidates are already campaigning and seeking votes.

Whoever gets the most votes will be nominated in the summer of 2024 at the Republican National Convention and will likely face current President Joe Biden, who is heavily favored to be the Democratic nominee again in the November 2024 election.

Pence, who describes himself as „a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,“ is expected to position himself as the successor to the Trump administration's conservative agenda, but without the multiple burdens that Trump carries.

Pence hopes to win strong support in Iowa, where religious conservatives are an influential voting bloc in the state and in 2016 helped Texas Senator Ted Cruz narrowly defeat Trump.

SOURCE: TODAY PHOTO: TODAY