Mike Pence forgot about the gallows, announces 2024 run

Two Republicans made their presidential primary campaigns official on Wednesday, and while one is a much bigger name than the other, chances are their polling numbers won’t be too different.

The only surprise about Mike Pence officially launching his presidential campaign is that he hadn’t already done it. (Raise your hand if you thought he had.) On the other hand, there’s North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, whose entry into the race merits a giant “who?”

Pence faces a real messaging challenge as he attempts to win the primary of a party whose base tried to kill him. Fine—it wasn’t the entire Republican base in the halls of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” But that remains a poor sign of how he’ll be accepted by voters who, according to a September 2022 poll, continue to deny the validity of the 2020 election.