Former Vice President Mike Pence promised “the best days of the greatest nation on earth are yet to come" in a video released Wednesday formally launching his campaign for the Republican nomination for president.“Different times call for different leadership,” Pence says in the video, released via Fox News and Twitter hours ahead of a kickoff event in Des Moines. “Today our party and our country need a leader that’ll appeal, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature."While it would be “easy to stay on the sidelines,” he adds, ”that’s not how I was raised. That’s why today, before God and my family, I’m announcing I'm running for president of the United States.”Pence is staking his presidential hopes on Iowa as he launches a campaign that will make him the first vice president in modern history to take on his former running mate.Pence's campaign will also test the party's appetite for a socially conservative, mild-mannered and deeply religious candidate who has denounced the populist tide that has swept through his party under former President Donald Trump. And it will show whether Pence still has a political future after Jan. 6, 2021, with a large portion of GOP voters still believing Trump's lies that the 2020 election was stolen and that Pence had the power to reject the results.Video below: Mike Pence releases video launching 2024 presidential bidPence and his advisers see Iowa — the state that will cast the first votes of the GOP nominating calendar — as key to his potential pathway to the nomination. Its caucus-goers include a large portion of evangelical Christian voters, whom they see as a natural constituency for Pence. They also think Pence, who represented Indiana in Congress and as governor, is a good personality fit with the Midwestern state.“We believe the path to victory runs through Iowa and all of its 99 counties," said Scott Reed, co-chair of a super PAC that launched last month to support Pence's candidacy. Iowa has typically been seen as a launching pad for presidential candidates, delivering momentum, money and attention to hopefuls who win or defy expectations. But recent past winners including Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee have failed to ultimately win the nomination.And Pence faces steep challenges. He enters the race as among the best-known Republican candidates in a crowded GOP field that now includes Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.But Pence — seen by Trump critics as complicit with his most indefensible actions and maligned by Trump loyalists as a traitor — is also saddled with high unfavorable ratings.A CNN poll conducted last month found 45% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said they would not support Pence under any circumstance. Only 16% said the same about Trump. Pence’s favorability has also slipped in Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.Shortly after leaving office, in June 2021, 86% of Iowa Republicans said they had a favorable view of Pence. But the Register’s March Iowa Poll showed that figure had dropped to 66%. The poll also found Pence with higher unfavorable ratings than all of the other candidates it asked about, including Trump and DeSantis, with 26% of Republicans polled saying they have a “somewhat” or “very” unfavorable view of him.And just 58% of Iowa evangelicals said they had favorable feelings toward Pence — a particularly disappointing number, given his campaign's strategy. But Pence, who has already visited Iowa more than a dozen times since leaving office, has also received a warm welcome from voters during his trips. During a “Roast and Ride” event over the weekend that drew a long list of 2024 candidates, Pence stood out as the only candidate to actually mount a Harley and participate in the event’s annual motorcycle ride. When he arrived at a barbecue at the state fairgrounds, he moved easily from table to table, warmly greeting and chatting with attendees.But there remains lingering skepticism of Pence among many Republican voters who adhere to the baseless but persistent conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen. Many who cling to the falsehood believe Pence was complicit in the plot to deny Trump a second term because he refused Trump’s pressure campaign to reject the Electoral College vote when he presided over a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump's supporters violently stormed the building. Pence advisers say they recognize the challenge and intend to explain to voters directly that Pence was adhering to his constitutional duty and never had the power to impact the vote in his ceremonial role.“I think it’s something you have to walk straight through,” said his longtime adviser Marc Short.Beyond Jan. 6, his team sees their primary goal as reintroducing Pence to a country that largely knows him as Trump's second-in-command. They want to remind voters of his time in congressional leadership and as governor and are planning a campaign heavy with town halls, house parties and visits to local diners and Pizza Ranch restaurants —- more intimate settings that will help voters get to know him personally.“People have seen Mike Pence the vice president. I think what people are going to see is Mike Pence the person," said Todd Hudson, the speaker of the House in Indiana and a longtime Pence friend who has signed on to help with outreach to state legislators. “I’m super excited for people to get to know the Mike Pence that I know, who's funny, who's just a wonderful person... the more relaxed Mike Pence."Reed believes there is a strong desire in the party for a candidate like Pence who espouses Reagan-style conservatism, including traditional social values, hawkish foreign policy and small government economics.“We think this nomination fight is going to be an epic battle for the heart and soul of the conservative, traditional wing of the Republican Party. And Pence is going to campaign as a classic conservative. His credentials are unmatched,” he said.Unlike Trump and DeSantis, Pence has argued that cuts to Social Security and Medicare must be on the table and has blasted those who have questioned why the U.S. should continue to send aid to Ukraine to counter Russian aggression.“We are not going to try to out-Trump Pence. Everybody else is," Reed said. “Pence is the only candidate running not to be Trump’s VP.”

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Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is running for president, touched on a number of topics recently in a "Conversation with the Candidate" town hall event.Watch the full conversation in the video player above or the links below. Included is a 30-minute, online-only portion of the conversation:Watch Part 1: Haley calls for cognitive test for presidentWatch Part 2: Haley shares how she'd tackle health care costsWatch online exclusive: Haley, on debt, says kids 'won't forgive us'Learn more about Nikki Haley's backgroundHaley was first elected to office in the South Carolina State House in 2004 by edging out a 30-year Republican incumbent.From there, she would become the state's first female governor and the nation's youngest state executive.In 2015, Haley led South Carolina through one of its darkest moments: the deadly shooting at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church. She signed a bill ordering the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds.Haley stepped down in her second term to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration.She said her presidential campaign is about moving "past stale ideas and faded names" to lead a new generation into the future of the country.An accountant by training, Haley graduated from Clemson University.Born in Bamberg, South Carolina, she is the daughter of Indian immigrants.Haley and her husband Michael, a captain in the Army National Guard, have two children. See the full "Conversation with the Candidate" event through the following links:Watch Part 1: Haley calls for cognitive test for presidentWatch Part 2: Haley shares how she'd tackle health care costsWatch online exclusive: Haley, on debt, says kids 'won't forgive us'Amid fentanyl crisis, Haley calls for sanctions of China, sending special forces to take out drug cartelsWhen asked how to give specific steps to tackle the opioid crisis, Haley highlighted the importance of securing the country's borders before turning her attention to China. "And don't think for a second China doesn't know what they're doing when they send it over. This is all part of the bigger plan. So, how do we deal with it?" Haley said. "First of all, you acknowledge to China that we know they're doing it."Haley called for sanctions to deal with China in regard to the opioid crisis."There's nothing China hates worse than us hitting them in the wallet, and you sanction them until they stop the flow of fentanyl," Haley said. "They're sending it over to these cartels."According to the U.S. Justice Department, companies in China spawn fentanyl precursor chemicals. Chinese officials in April denied they were trafficking fentanyl to Mexico, instead blaming the U.S. for the problem. Haley said her focus would also be on the cartels. "Treat those cartels for the terrorists that they are. We send in our special operation units, and we take them out, just like took out Al-Qaida. And you stop all of that manufacturing that's happening there on the side of Mexico.""When we do that, that's when we'll actually start saving Americans again," Haley said.Haley says 'woke ideology' in schools has been 'massive distraction' to educating children"As a mom, I really do worry about what's happening in education, and the problem is, people need to be honest about what's happened," Haley said.Haley said the country's education problem came before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She cited statistics that showed a lack of proficiency with reading, math, history and civics among the nation's eighth-graders, and that the situation worsened over the first two years of the pandemic.Haley then brought up her issues with critical race theory, which the Associated Press referred to as "a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism," and transgender girls participating in girls' sports, something Haley referred to as "the women's issue of our time." The former South Carolina governor then brought up Dylan Mulvaney-Bud Light controversy. "Make no mistake. That is a guy, dressed up like a girl mocking women," Haley said. See more from Haley on this topic in the video player below:See the full "Conversation with the Candidate" event through the following links:Watch Part 1: Haley calls for cognitive test for presidentWatch Part 2: Haley shares how she'd tackle health care costsWatch online exclusive: Haley, on debt, says kids 'won't forgive us'Other "Conversation with the Candidate" events will be held throughout the campaign season. The full list of candidates who participate will be updated here.