• Pence launched his campaign in a suburb of Des Moines

• Pence accused Trump of abandoning conservative principles and being guilty of dereliction of duty on Jan 6

  • He said trump disqualified himself on Jan 6

    •  “But the American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded I choose between him and our Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice.”

    • “I believe anyone that puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United Sates again,”

  • He is hit Trump on abortion

    • Pence supports a national 15 week ban

    • “After leading the most pro-life administration in American history, Donald Trump and others in this race are retreating from the cause of the unborn. The sanctity of life has been our party’s calling for half a century — long before Donald Trump was a part of it. Now he treats it as an inconvenience, even blaming our election losses in 2022 on overturning Roe v. Wade.”

      • Trump has declined to say if he supports a national ban

  • Talked about grieve politics

    • the country needs leaders who know the difference between the “politics of outrage and standing firm.”

  • “We will restore a threshold of civility in public life,”

• Pence had previously been essentially subtweeting in his comments about Trump

• Pence has a hard battle

  • He has sky high unfavourability ratings

    • CNN poll last month found 45% of Republicans and R leaning would not support Pence under any circumstance

      • Only 16% said the same about trump

    • The Des Moines Register/ Mediacom Iowa Poll found that Pence has a higher unfavourability rating that all other candidates they asked about

      • Including Trump and DeSantis

  • Those who don't like trump see him as too tied to trump

    • You were fine with most of attitude

  • Trump fans see him as a traitor

  • At an April appearance at the NRA Pence was greeted with some applause and loud boos

• Pence emphasized he was “incredibly proud” of the Trump-Pence administration

PC: Reuters