Mike Pence will decide on the 2024 presidential nomination by June
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday he would decide no later than June whether to run for the White House in 2024.
“I think if we have to make an announcement it will be well before the end of June.” Pence continued CBS’ Face the Nation.
“Anyone serious about running for the Republican nomination should be in this contest by June. If we have to make an announcement, it will be well before then,” he said.
Pence served as vice president to ex-President Donald Trump and would need to overthrow Trump to win the Republican Party nomination — an apparently daunting task by today’s polling standards.
The two had a falling out when Pence voted to confirm Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, which Trump claimed without evidence had been rigged.
Trump’s supporters called for Pence’s hanging as they stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Pence has defended his actions as legal and appropriate, calling Trump “reckless.”
“President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election and his reckless words put my family and everyone in the Capitol at risk that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable,” Pence said in March.
Meanwhile, Pence said he would not appeal a judge’s order requiring him to testify before a federal grand jury weighing possible criminal charges against Trump in connection with the Jan. 6 riots.
But the former vice president also criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case as a “political prosecution.”
Pence, a former Indiana governor and congressman, has been preparing for a presidential bid for months.
He’s assembled a political staff, published memoirs, and erred in early-voting states.
On Saturday he was in Iowa, the first voting state for the GOP nomination, and attended an event sponsored by the Faith & Freedom Coalition.
When asked which direction he was leaning on a run, Pence said at the time, “Well, I’m here in Iowa.”
Trump has a solid lead in the primary, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced his expected candidacy, coming in second. Many Republicans have indicated they want to move beyond Trump, who is unpopular in general election polls.
Pence is third in most polls at 4%, along with Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador to the US under Trump. In February, she announced her candidacy for the presidency.
Other Republican candidates include South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who said the GOP must move beyond Trump.
