Former Vice President Mike Pence is starting to resurface after the end of the Trump administration with the launch of a new group to counter the policies of the Biden administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress.
The former vice president has been largely out of public sight since inauguration day, focusing mainly on some early work with conservative organizations and the arrival of a new grandchild. But on Wednesday, he launched Advancing American Freedom, an entity, he said in a statement, that “would advance the pro-freedom policies of the past four years that created unprecedented prosperity domestically and restored respect for America abroad.”
The new group allows Pence to maintain his political profile and serve as his vehicle to help defend Trump-era policies. A senior assistant said the former vice president is likely to focus primarily on the Biden administration’s evolving immigration and border security policies and the current president’s proposal to increase corporate tax rates to pay for a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure plan .
According to the senior assistant, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the plans, the new group aims to “merge traditional conservative values with the Make America Great agenda.”
Successfully executing that merger over the next few years will be essential for any Republican not named Donald Trump who is thinking of running for president in 2024. Trump-line GOP leaders are making early steps: former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has traveled to Iowa in recent weeks; Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who earns praise from conservative leaders for his management of the coronavirus pandemic in his state; Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas; Senator Ted Cruz of Texas; and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. Others outside Trump’s sphere of influence, including Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, are also brooding over the White House bids.
But Pence’s new group comes with the blessing of Trump, who in a brief statement to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday called his first term “the most successful” in US history, adding, “Nice to see Mike share some of our many achievements highlighted! “
Pence’s group is backed by a who’s who of Trump-era players and other conservative leaders. It will be led by Paul Teller, a former assistant to Cruz and co-chaired by longtime Pence assistants Marty Obst and Marc Short and Chip Saltsman, a South Carolina-based former assistant to former Senate Leader Bill Frist and Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaigns.
The group’s board of directors includes former White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, Trump top economic adviser Larry Kudlow, former Trade Representatives Robert Lighthizer, Callista and Newt Gingrich, Ed Meese and Rick Santorum. Current Arizona Governor Doug Ducey advises the group, along with former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Kay James, the president of the Heritage Foundation – a conservative think tank for whom Pence is a distinguished guest – and two of the group’s former presidents, Jim DeMint and Ed Fuelner, are also on board.
The new group’s launch comes ahead of the former vice president’s first public appearance, a speech to a Christian conservative group scheduled for April 29 in Columbia, South Carolina. He is also scheduled to attend a private fundraising campaign for the Heritage Foundation in Arizona earlier that week, aides said.
Pence’s announcement comes on the same day that former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller announced plans to create an unrelated group, America First Legal, designed to address legal challenges to the policies of Pence. Biden.