Former US Vice President Mike Pence will enter the 2024 presidential race next week.
It will reportedly kick off his campaign on June 7 with a video and speech in the state of Iowa, which opted for the first nomination, reports RTE.
That means Mr Pence, who has drawn the wrath of former President Donald Trump by refusing to back his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, will challenge his former boss for the Republican Party nomination.
A staunch social conservative who has stood by Mr Trump throughout his tenure, Mr Pence has distanced himself from the former president since his election defeat.
The 63-year-old said Mr Trump’s incitement to the riots that hit the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 put him and his family at risk.
Mr Trump is leading the polls in a Republican field that now has more than six declared candidates, a dynamic that could split the main opposition to the former president.
Mr. Pence continued to support many of Mr. Trump’s policies and presented himself as a fair and consensus-driven alternative, reports RTE.
The success of his campaign will depend on whether he can attract enough supporters of Mr Trump’s policies, who have been put off by the former president’s rhetoric and behaviour, to build a viable coalition.
Mr Pence — a former Indiana governor and former party leader in the US House of Representatives — will also test voters’ appetites for a Republican establishment in a party where increasing numbers of voters are turning to outsiders, reports RTE.
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