The recent visit of former US Vice President Mike Pence to New Hampshire and his political movements today fuel speculation about his possible presidential candidacy in 2024.
Although Pence insists that he is focused on strengthening support for the Republican Party (GOP) candidates who will run in the 2022 midterm elections, his actions since leaving office mirror those of someone who is running for another candidacy, said the The Hill newspaper.
He recalled the newspaper that the former lieutenant governor spoke to conservative groups and appeared alongside legislators in South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire, all of them early voting states in the presidential primaries.
At the same time, he campaigned alongside Virginia governor-elect, Republican Glenn Youngkin, in the most important November race that resulted in a fiasco for Democrats.
Additionally, Pence inserted himself into some of the highest-profile political debates of the Joe Biden administration’s first year by commenting on a Supreme Court case on abortion rights and by opposing the Build Back Better agenda. best) of the White House.
In his most direct comments to date, Pence did not rule out a possible candidacy within three years, even if Trump also entered the race as he already hinted.
He anticipated in an interview with the CNN network that in 2023 he will determine where he can serve better, “and we will go where they call us.”
The former vice president said he has spoken to Trump “many times” since the two left office earlier this year, but rumors about the coldness between the two persist.
GOP strategists have suggested for months that Pence’s path to the nomination will be clouded by his position among Trump supporters who viewed his decision to certify Biden’s victory in 2020 as a betrayal.
However, “more people are realizing that the vice president did his constitutional duty,” warned New Hampshire Republican National Committee member Chris Ager.
A Harvard-Harris Poll poll found Trump leading the field of potential contenders for the 2024 GOP primaries with 67 percent support, while Pence was left with just nine percent.
But in a non-Trump scenario, he garnered 25 percent support, behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) who has 30 percent.
On the Democratic side, Biden, who at first spoke of being a transitional president, expressed his intention to seek a second term.
If he succeeds, he would break his own record of being the longest-lived president in the history of the United States, since on November 20, 2024, he will turn 82 years old.
