To enter the White House, the most difficult task for former Vice President Mike Pence will be to convince voters to leave his old boss Donald Trump.
Former US Vice President Mike Pence's campaign filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on June 5, marking the start of his 2024 White House bid.
Observers say Mike Pence, 63, is a strong candidate for the Republican Party because he has both age and experience in politics. He is not as young as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, 44, nor as old as former President Donald Trump, who is 76 this year and will celebrate his 80th birthday in the White House if elected.
He was a former governor and served in both houses of Congress. His four years as vice president gave him a taste of government and valuable time to build relationships with his party base.
He is also an engaging speaker with a decisive, engaging debate style, skills honed from his years as a radio host. Those factors are very suitable for the conservative Republican voters.
“Pence is a traditional conservative,” said David Oman, a former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party. “He’s not a loud guy.”
Former US Vice President Mike Pence speaks at an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 2022. Photo: AFP
However, American politics is no longer a normal world, especially since Mr. Trump sought to become the Republican presidential candidate and entered the White House in 2016.
Experts say the 2024 race will set a new precedent in modern American politics, as for the first time a former president and his former vice president will compete for the White House. After a long period of silence, Mr. Pence has recently taken a more aggressive stance toward Mr. Pence.
Last month, he testified before a federal grand jury investigating former President Trump’s role in the Capitol riots. In March, he continued his tough rhetoric against the former president, declaring that “history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”
However, such comments have brought Mr. Pence under increasing scrutiny from Mr. Trump's supporters, posing a huge challenge for the former vice president to overcome in order to become the Republican nominee.
Former President Trump has almost everything in his hands. He has a huge campaign fund, high approval ratings among Republican voters and solid support from about 30% of the party's loyal voters.
Trump loyalists also viewed former Vice President Pence's announcement of his candidacy negatively, viewing it as a "betrayal" of his former boss.
For his campaign to be successful, Pence would need his former boss to back down and drop out of the race. But if that happens, Trump supporters are likely to turn to someone else like Governor DeSantis, commentators Anthony Zurcher and Sam Cabral from the BBC assess.
Still, there is one area where Pence has the edge over Trump.
A devout Christian, Pence has longstanding ties to the American evangelical community. One reason Trump chose Pence as his vice presidential running mate in 2016 was because campaign advisers believed Pence would ease concerns among Christian voters who might not support a three-time married, scandal-plagued New York billionaire.
Former Vice President Pence has been the Trump administration’s ambassador to the Christian right, experts say. Now he’s banking on the former president’s ability to capitalize on that history and win over religious voters.
This is particularly important in Iowa, the first state to hold its primary election to choose the Republican presidential nominee and where conservative Christians have significant influence.
“That is a group that candidates should take very seriously,” Oman noted.
The challenge for Pence is that there will be other candidates competing for the Christian vote, including Governor DeSantis, who has championed conservative cultural issues in Florida, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
The more crowded and divided the playing field, the greater the likelihood that candidates will not be able to defeat former President Trump.
"Mike Pence is off to a rocky start with a significant portion of Republican voters not supporting him," Oman said, adding that to succeed, the former vice president must "create a sense of belonging and give voters the confidence that he can completely replace his former boss Donald Trump."
Mr. Pence may be inspired by current President Joe Biden, who served as vice president under Obama and then ran for office and was successful.
"The fact that a former vice president like Mr. Biden is operating in the Oval Office shows that Pence's dream of entering the White House is not too far-fetched, although the door he has to squeeze through is very narrow and unprecedented," said two commentators from BBC, Zurcher and Cabral.
Vu Hoang (According to BBC )
Source link
Comment (0)