If former Vice President Mike Pence runs for president in 2024, expect a campaign focused on U.S. strength abroad, culture wars issues at home and traditionally conservative views across a range of topics.
Pence laid out an early campaign-style agenda last week through his political advocacy group Advancing American Freedom titled “Freedom Agenda.” It included an accompanying ad narrated by Pence.
“Conservatives across the country can unite around this plan to keep America from further decline and decay brought on by President Biden and progressive policies,” Pence wrote in the document.
The three-part agenda lays out Pence’s positions on issues including supporting regulations for Big Tech and using U.S. coal and petroleum over foreign green energy technology. It taps into current culture wars battles surrounding education, calling for school choice, a ban on trans athletes and “patriotic education” that would require high school students to pass a test on founding U.S. documents to graduate.
Pence, who declared Biden the winner of the 2020 election, also included a section on election integrity in the agenda. The document calls for making in-person voting the primary voting method in the U.S. and limiting mail-in voting.
The document lays out foreign policy goals to counter Russia, China and Iran, and strengthen alliances with Israel and the West. An energy export initiative among democratic countries is proposed to end European dependence on Russian oil, and it calls for strengthening the supply chain with allies over strategic competitors.
What are Mike Pence’s current 2024 chances?
If the 2024 Republican primary were held today, Pence would be among the top contenders, though he trails former President Donald Trump.
A March Harvard University Center for American Political Studies poll found Trump is leading the potential field with the support of 59% of Republican voters, followed by Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, each with about 10% support. If Trump isn’t an option, DeSantis leads with 28%, followed by Pence at 24%.
Trump told the Washington Examiner in March that he and Pence had “a great relationship except for the very important factor that took place at the end,” a reference to Pence not overturning the 2020 election. Trump suggested Pence wouldn’t be his running mate a third time.
“I don’t think the people would accept it,” Trump said.
The list of Republicans Pence consulted for the agenda, however, reads like an attempt to find acceptance across the GOP spectrum, from fellow former Trump administration officials like former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and former National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, to Republicans seen as more moderate than some in the Trump administration, like Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.