Pence files papers for WH race 2024

WASHINGTON: Republican former vice president Mike Pence has launched his hotly-anticipated challenge to his one-time boss Donald Trump for the party’s 2024 White House nomination, papers filed with the US Federal Election Commission showed Monday.

The 63-year-old evangelical Christian was scheduled to kick off his presidential campaign officially on Wednesday with a video in the early voting state of Iowa, joining an already crowded field. Pence will then make his pitch to the nation at a live televised town hall event at 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Thursday), setting up the unusual scenario of two former running mates becoming rivals. The former vice president became a pariah in Trumpworld after rejecting the Republican leader´s demands that he overturn the 2020 election in his role as president of the Senate.