Pence visits South Carolina, eyeing 2024 presidential bid

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Former Vice President Mike Pence, positioning himself for a possible return to elected office, told an audience in early-voting South Carolina that he will spend the coming months “pushing back on the liberal agenda” he says is wrong for the country.

“We’ve got to guard our values ... by offering a positive agenda to the American people, grounded in our highest ideals,” Pence told an audience of several hundred on Thursday at a Columbia dinner sponsored by a conservative Christian nonprofit. “Now, over the coming months, I’ll have more to say about all of that.”

Pence, whose

President Donald relationship with Trump frayed as

Trump pressured Pence to block certification of the presidential election results, praised Trump’s tenure as “four years of promises made, promises kept.”

The choice of South Carolina for Pence’s first public address since the end of the Trump administration has definite political overtones, helping him develop exposure for a potential 2024 presidential bid. The state holds the first presidential primaries in the South, and candidates of both major parties typically spend more than a year in South Carolina ahead of those votes.

Thursday’s event, hosted by Palmetto Family Council, also gave Pence a backdrop for some of the issues for which he long advocated as an Indiana congressman and governor before joining Trump’s ticket, such as restrictions on abortion and support for the overturn of Roe v. Wade.