Who else but Donald Trump to be the Republican candidate in 2024? The name of his former vice-president Mike Pence is mentioned with more and more insistence, as the sexagenarian publicly distances himself from the billionaire.
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“Hang Mike Pence”: on January 6, 2021, this is the name of this former radio host converted into politics who is shouted by supporters of Donald Trump taking the American Congress by storm.
The demonstrators are furious that the vice-president, an early Trumpist, did not agree to block the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Sixteen months later, the politician has decided to turn the page.
“A traitor”
Abortion, diplomacy … after years of unwavering loyalty to Donald Trump, Mike Pence has been increasing his appeals to the conservative right for weeks, distinguishing himself from the one whose right arm he was on a series of files.
But it was last Monday that Mike Pence acted most frontally on his break with the former president, coming to campaign for a candidate whom Donald Trump had publicly repudiated during the important primary elections in Georgia.
Speaking at a small airport in suburban Atlanta, he says:
“In just over a year – think about it – the Biden-Harris administration has unleashed a tidal wave of left-wing measures,” giving the impression of a man already looking ahead to the next election, the presidential election in 2024.
But in order to create a real dynamic around a possible candidacy, the hardest part remains to be done:
Mike Pence must engage in a delicate balancing act of distancing himself from Donald Trump while managing to woo his loyal base, including the millions of Americans who still believe the 2020 presidential election was ” stolen” from the former president.
“He didn’t stand by Trump when necessary,” Helen Allen, a 50-year-old in the US state of Georgia, told AFP. For this reason, she strongly opposes the idea that Mike Pence could one day be entrusted with the keys to the White House.
Pence president? “Good luck,” also mocked Jan Sheffield, another 66-year-old Trumpist. “He’s a traitor, he should have stopped the course of the election,” he judged.
“Christian, Conservative, Republican”
Mike Pence still seems a thousand leagues away from formally declaring himself a presidential candidate for 2024.
But he has more than once refused to rule out running whether Donald Trump is in the running or not. To the press, this devout Christian assures that he and his wife Karen pray on the issue and “will go where we are called”.
And he multiplies by then the speeches on university campuses where in these American States which make and undo the elections. In front of the crowds who come to listen to him, he repeats one of his favorite formulas, resembling a campaign slogan: “I am a Christian, conservative and republican and in that order.”
Donald Trump has also not yet indicated whether he intends to try again to run for a second term, although he seems to be more and more a candidate every day.
The former tenant of the White House was very largely in the lead in voting intentions for Republican candidates in 2024 according to a YouGov poll published in early May, with more than 55% support.
In second place, the Republican Governor of Florida Ron De Santis at 26%. Mike Pence is currently only at 7%.
A scenario that can already be ruled out: the return of the 2016 “Trump-Pence” ticket, which the former president has already ruled out.
“I don’t think people could accept that,” Donald Trump told an American daily in March, assuring that the two men had distanced themselves since Mike Pence’s refusal to oppose the certification of the victory of Joe Biden in the election.
And to add: “I haven’t spoken to him for a very long time.”