Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election

Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence filed papers Monday announcing his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Pence, a conservative politician and former governor of Indiana, will launch his campaign in Iowa on Monday with a video and speech, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.

Pence often describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican.” He plans to focus entirely on Iowa, hoping to win the votes of evangelical Christians who share his staunch anti-abortion and other right-wing positions.

Early in the campaign, Mr. Pence portrayed himself as someone who had helped Mr. Trump in office, a period in which he agreed with many of the policy positions, but one in which he was calmer and free of the chaos that has often characterized Mr. Trump’s presidency.

In addition to his conservative views on cultural issues, Pence said the United States should increase its support for Ukraine’s resistance to Russian military aggression, and he dismissed “Putinapologists” in the Republican Party for their reluctance to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In addition to Trump, Desantis and Pence, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson have also won the White House.

However, according to media reports, Pence’s chances of success are believed to be low. Now Trump is still the most popular presidential candidate in the Republican Party, and Florida Governor desantis is regarded as Trump’s strongest opponent, but there is still a gap between the strength of desantis and Trump.

Pence served as Trump’s loyal lieutenant for four years, but the two fell out after the 2020 presidential election when Trump asked Pence to overturn Congress ‘certification of the election results, and thus their defeat. Pence also condemned the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.

The riot occurred on a day when Pence, his family and security guards were forced to hide in a loading dock at the Capitol while some protesters chanted “Hang Pence” and erected a makeshift gallows on the National Mall, within sight of the Capitol.

Now Pence hopes to replace his former boss Donald Trump as the standard-bearer of the Republican Party, challenging Democratic President Joe Biden and reclaiming the White House. But national polls of Republicans show Trump holding a commanding lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, despite facing multiple criminal investigations related to his presidency.

In addition, Florida Gov. RON desantis is in second place, about 30 points behind, and Pence and others are even further behind, each with less than 5 percent support.