Former Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence of Indiana delivered an address to students of Saint Anselm College and residents of New Hampshire regarding the 2024 Republican Primaries and the future of the Republican Party.

Pence, a former Democrat, became a Republican during the Reagan Revolution and first ran for the House of Representatives in the final year of Reagan’s second term, meeting Regan during the campaign.

During his address, he quoted Regan’s “A Time for Choosing” but this time said “A Time for Republican Choosing.”

Pence ran for Congress a decade later representing a district of Indiana until his election to Governor of his home state. Most recently he served as Donald Trump’s running mate and Vice President from 2017-2021.

Pence’s time for choosing represents a divide in the Republican party between “traditional conservatives,” which Pence describes as those Republicans who believe in limited government and individual freedom.

Pence’s Republican opponents are who he described as Republican populists, these candidates “would substitute our faith in limited government and traditional values with an agenda stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage.”

Pence claims that Republican Populists would “blatantly erode our constitutional norms,” adding “a leading candidate for the Republican nomination last year called for the quote termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the constitution close quote.”

Pence sees similarities between Democrats and Republican Populists saying that both have contributed to the national debt and have marginalized the lives of the unborn.

Be on the lookout for a full story with student and faculty reactions to Pence’s address coming to campus in our first print issue of the 2023-24 academic year set to release next week!