Former Vice President Mike Pence will soon launch an official 2024 campaign for president, modeling himself after the late President Ronald Reagan, Pence associates told The New York Times in a story published Monday.
Pence will market himself as a “Reagan conservative” leading the Republican Party back to pre-Trump days, people close to Pence told the newspaper.
“His team’s improbable bet is that a ‘Reagan coalition’ — composed of the Christian right, fiscal conservatives and national security hawks — can be reassembled within a party transformed by Mr. Trump,” the newspaper wrote.
At the same time, the former veep is staking out his ground as a unique option in a GOP race currently dominated by the grievance-driven former President Donald Trump.
“This campaign is going to reintroduce Mike Pence to the country as his own man, not as vice president, but as a true economic, social and national security conservative — a Reagan conservative,” Scott Reed, co-chair of a new super PAC for Pence, told The Associated Press.
Politico on Monday confirmed the launching of the PAC to back Pence through early primary votes.
Pence, a long shot in the 2024 race, previously said he would decide no later than June, but the PAC indicates an announcement could be sooner.
Pence’s alignment with Reagan should come as no surprise. Last summer he tweeted: “President Ronald Reagan’s ideals inspired me to leave the party of my youth and become a Republican like he did and it was an honor to sit down with the @ReaganInstitute Strategy Group in Utah last week!”
Oddly, though, the former vice president once said of Trump: “He reminds me of Ronald Reagan.”
That was before his and Trump’s ticket was elected to the White House and well before Pence defied Trump and certified the 2020 election of Joe Biden, which Trump baselessly claimed was rigged.