Politics

By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed a major victory to Black voters who challenged a Republican-drawn electoral map in Alabama, finding that the state violated a landmark federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.

The 5-4 ruling affirmed a lower court’s decision that the map diluted the voting power of Black Alabamians, running afoul of a bedrock U.S. civil rights law, the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the ruling, which was joined by the court’s three liberals as well as conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

With the ruling in the dispute over the composition of Alabama’s U.S. House of Representatives districts, the conservative-majority court elected not to further roll back protections contained in the Voting Rights Act as it had done in two major rulings in the past decade.

At issue in the case was the map approved in 2021 by the Republican-controlled state legislature setting the boundaries of Alabama’s seven U.S. House districts. The map featured one majority-Black district, with six majority-white districts.

The Voting Rights Act was passed at a time when Southern states including Alabama enforced policies blocking Black people from casting ballots. Nearly six decades later, race remains a contentious issue in American politics and society more broadly.

Conservative states and groups have successfully prodded the Supreme Court to limit the Voting Rights Act’s scope. Its 2013 ruling in another Alabama case struck down a key part that determined which states with histories of racial discrimination needed federal approval to change voting laws. In a 2021 ruling endorsing Republican-backed Arizona voting restrictions, the justices made it harder to prove violations under Section 2.

In the ruling on Thursday, two consolidated cases before the Supreme Court involved challenges brought by Black voters and advocacy groups accusing the state of violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a provision aimed at countering measures that result in racial bias in voting even absent racist intent.

The challengers said Alabama’s map reduced the influence of Black voters by concentrating their voting power in one district while distributing the rest of the Black population in other districts at levels too small to form a majority.

A three-judge federal court panel in January 2022 sided with the challengers, blocking the Republican-drawn map as a “substantially likely” violation of Section 2 and ordering an additional district where Black voters make up “a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.” Alabama then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Alabama officials argued that drawing a second district to give Black voters a better chance at electing their preferred candidate would itself be racially discriminatory by favoring them at the expense of other voters. If the Voting Rights Act required the state to consider race in such a manner, according to Alabama, the statute would violate the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.

Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and a number of voting rights groups who backed the plaintiffs had said that a ruling favoring Alabama would threaten certain electoral districts in other states – for the U.S. House and state legislatures – potentially diminishing minority representation in American politics.

Electoral districts are redrawn each decade to reflect population changes as measured by a national census, last taken in 2020. In most states, such redistricting is done by the party in power, which can lead to map manipulation for partisan gain.

In a major 2019 ruling, the Supreme Court barred federal judges from curbing the practice, known as partisan gerrymandering. That ruling did not preclude court scrutiny of racially discriminatory gerrymandering.

Democrats have accused Republicans of pursuing policies at the state level that intended to suppress the vote of racial minorities. Republicans have said they were acting to prevent voting fraud. In addition, high-profile instances of Black people killed by police have fueled America’s ongoing debate about racial justice.

(Reporting by John Kruzel in Washington; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)

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The case had been closely watched for its potential to weaken the landmark voting rights law.

The court had allowed the challenged map to be used for the 2022 elections and at arguments in October, the justices appeared willing to make it harder to use the voting rights law to challenge redistricting plans as racially discriminatory.

The other four conservative justices dissented Thursday.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed a major victory to Black voters who challenged a Republican-drawn electoral map in Alabama, finding that the state violated a landmark federal law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.

The ruling affirmed a lower court’s decision that the map diluted the voting power of Black Alabamians, running afoul of a bedrock U.S. civil rights law, the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

With the ruling in the dispute over the composition of Alabama’s U.S. House of Representatives districts, the conservative-majority court elected not to further roll back protections contained in the Voting Rights Act as it had done in two major rulings in the past decade.

At issue in the case was the map approved in 2021 by the Republican-controlled state legislature setting the boundaries of Alabama’s seven U.S. House districts. The map featured one majority-Black district, with six majority-white districts.

The Voting Rights Act was passed at a time when Southern states including Alabama enforced policies blocking Black people from casting ballots. Nearly six decades later, race remains a contentious issue in American politics and society more broadly.

Conservative states and groups have successfully prodded the Supreme Court to limit the Voting Rights Act’s scope. Its 2013 ruling in another Alabama case struck down a key part that determined which states with histories of racial discrimination needed federal approval to change voting laws. In a 2021 ruling endorsing Republican-backed Arizona voting restrictions, the justices made it harder to prove violations under Section 2.

In the ruling on Thursday, two consolidated cases before the Supreme Court involved challenges brought by Black voters and advocacy groups accusing the state of violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a provision aimed at countering measures that result in racial bias in voting even absent racist intent.

The challengers said Alabama’s map reduced the influence of Black voters by concentrating their voting power in one district while distributing the rest of the Black population in other districts at levels too small to form a majority.

A three-judge federal court panel in January 2022 sided with the challengers, blocking the Republican-drawn map as a “substantially likely” violation of Section 2 and ordering an additional district where Black voters make up “a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.” Alabama then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Alabama officials argued that drawing a second district to give Black voters a better chance at electing their preferred candidate would itself be racially discriminatory by favoring them at the expense of other voters. If the Voting Rights Act required the state to consider race in such a manner, according to Alabama, the statute would violate the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.

Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and a number of voting rights groups who backed the plaintiffs had said that a ruling favoring Alabama would threaten certain electoral districts in other states – for the U.S. House and state legislatures – potentially diminishing minority representation in American politics.

Electoral districts are redrawn each decade to reflect population changes as measured by a national census, last taken in 2020. In most states, such redistricting is done by the party in power, which can lead to map manipulation for partisan gain.

In a major 2019 ruling, the Supreme Court barred federal judges from curbing the practice, known as partisan gerrymandering. That ruling did not preclude court scrutiny of racially discriminatory gerrymandering.

Democrats have accused Republicans of pursuing policies at the state level that intended to suppress the vote of racial minorities. Republicans have said they were acting to prevent voting fraud. In addition, high-profile instances of Black people killed by police have fueled America’s ongoing debate about racial justice.

(Reporting by John Kruzel in Washington; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)

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(Reuters) – Federal prosecutors have notified former U.S. President Donald Trump’s attorneys he is the target of an investigation into his handling of classified materials, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, adding to his legal troubles as he campaigns for the White House in 2024.

The Justice Department typically notifies people when they become targets of an investigation to give them an opportunity to present their own evidence before a grand jury. The notification does not necessarily mean Trump will be charged.

News of the notification to Trump’s legal team surfaced just two days after his attorneys met with Justice Department officials to discuss the case.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump’s attorneys in the documents case could not be reached for comment.

Trump’s legal team was notified on Monday, the person said. Although there are some signs that the documents investigation is coming to a close, the timing of when a person is told they are a target cannot necessarily be used as a predictor of when charges might be brought, said David Schoen, an attorney who represented Trump ally Steve Bannon during his criminal trial on contempt of Congress charges.

“Sometimes they are issued at the beginning of a long investigation and sometimes at the conclusion of an investigation,” he said.

Trump, the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has repeatedly described the multiple investigations as politically motivated.

A federal grand jury has been investigating Trump’s retention of classified materials after leaving the White House in 2021.

A second criminal investigation is looking into alleged efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

A spokesperson for Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the probes, declined to comment.

BOXES OF DOCUMENTS

Investigators in August 2022 seized roughly 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. One hundred of these were marked as classified, even though one of Trump’s lawyers had previously said that all records with classified markings had been returned.

Trump has defended his retention of documents, suggesting that he declassified them while he was president. However, Trump has not provided evidence of this and his attorneys have not made that argument in court filings.

Trump is the first current or former U.S. president to face criminal charges, having pleaded not guilty in April to felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 presidential race.

Trump handed over 15 boxes of records in January 2022, a year after leaving office, but federal officials came to believe he had not returned all the documents.

The Justice Department issued Trump a grand jury subpoena in May 2022 asking him to return any other records bearing classified markings, and top officials traveled to Mar-a-Lago to retrieve the materials.

Trump’s attorneys turned over 38 pages marked as classified to FBI and Justice Department officials and showed them a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, but did not permit the agents to open any of the boxes.

One of Trump’s lawyers also signed a document attesting that all records with classified markings had been returned to the government – a claim later proven false after the FBI searched his home.

Trump’s legal woes are growing.

A jury in federal court in Manhattan in May decided in a civil lawsuit that Trump must pay $5 million in damages for sexually abusing former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll and then defaming her by branding her a liar.

Trump also faces a criminal investigation by a county prosecutor in Georgia relating to his efforts to undo his 2020 election loss in that state.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Sarah N. Lynch and Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by Ross Colvin, Noeleen Walder, Lisa Shumaker and Lincoln Feast.)

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By Tim Reid

(Reuters) -Former Vice President Mike Pence, who loyally served Donald Trump for four years, on Wednesday blasted his former boss for the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol as he launched his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Pence issued his most forceful condemnation to date of Trump’s role in the attack of Jan. 6, 2021, when the then-president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Congress to try to stop lawmakers from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asked someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again,” Pence said in a speech in Iowa, which kicks off the Republican nominating contest next year.

It was an extraordinary attack by Pence, not only because he has mostly shied away from attacking Trump directly until now, but also because the Jan. 6 attack is rarely mentioned by other Republican presidential hopefuls.

They view it as politically toxic, fearful that condemning the attack and Trump’s part in it will alienate Trump’s supporters and other Republican primary voters. Trump is currently the front-runner in the Republican race.

Pence is placing a high-risk bet that voters in the nominating contest will reward him for backing the Constitution, rather than Trump.

Pence said Trump’s actions on that day “endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol.”

During Trump’s tumultuous four years in the White House, Pence repeatedly defended him through multiple scandals. But he incurred the wrath of Trump and his supporters when, as ceremonial president of the Senate, he refused to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.

Pence, who turned 64 on Wednesday, joins a crowded nominating contest that is currently a two-man race between front-runner Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum also announced candidacies this week, raising the number of Republican White House hopefuls into double digits.

It is extremely rare for a vice president to run against a president he served under, and it has happened just a handful of times in U.S. history. Pence enters the Republican primary with a mountain to climb, polling at just 5% and trailing Trump by 44 percentage points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll in May.

Pence said on Wednesday he had no constitutional authority to meddle with the election results and that Trump had been “wrong.” In Twitter posts on Jan. 6, Trump accused Pence of cowardice.

Trump supporters stormed the Capitol during the certification process, forcing Pence, family members, lawmakers and staff to flee to safety. Some rioters chanted for Pence to be hanged.

“The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution and I always will,” he said.

Pence will follow his announcement with a CNN town hall event Wednesday evening.

The growing number of candidates could clear the way for a Trump victory, because they risk splintering the anti-Trump vote, letting the former president clinch the nomination like he did in similar circumstances in 2016, party members and strategists said.

Pence, a conservative Christian, will focus much of his campaigning on Iowa. The state has a significant number of evangelical voters among its Republican electorate. Pence hopes a strong showing in the state will give him momentum and propel him into contention.

ABORTION, UKRAINE

In his Iowa speech, Pence accused Trump of treating abortion as “an inconvenience.” As president, Trump appointed conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped end the national right to abortion last year.

“Donald Trump and others in this race are retreating from the cause of the unborn,” Pence said.

Trump has declined to back a federal law restricting abortion rights, saying the issue should be left to individual states. Pence backs Congress passing a law enshrining abortion restrictions nationally.

Pence also took a swipe at DeSantis, a leading contender for the nomination, for saying that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a “territorial dispute,” a remark DeSantis later walked back.

“I know the difference between a territorial dispute and a war of aggression,” Pence said.

Trump, in remarks to conservative commentator Todd Starnes on Monday, wished Pence luck, but criticized him for allowing the certification of the 2020 election results.

“We had a strong, nice relationship until the very end,” Trump said. “We disagreed on that last moment in time on that very issue.”

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives was paralyzed for a second day on Wednesday as Speaker Kevin McCarthy struggled to quell a revolt by hardline Republicans, raising questions about the party’s ability to advance its agenda in Washington.

McCarthy said he felt “blindsided” after a group of conservatives derailed their own party’s effort to block new environmental regulations on household gas stoves but predicted the two sides would resolve their differences.

“We’ll work through this, and we’ll even be stronger,” he told reporters.

But the chamber remained in a holding pattern, as Republican McCarthy’s leadership team scheduled and then canceled another attempt to advance the legislation.

One of the conservatives, Representative Tim Burchett, told reporters that the two sides were working to resolve “trust issues” and said they appeared closer to a resolution.

The hardliners have vowed to use “procedural tools” to slow legislation until McCarthy agrees to their terms, raising questions about whether McCarthy was at risk of losing his post.

Those hardliners were among the House Republicans who opposed McCarthy’s election as speaker in January until he agreed to concessions that make it easy to challenge his leadership.

They were also among the 71 Republicans who opposed the compromise debt ceiling legislation passed last week. They maintain that McCarthy and his leadership team did not cut spending deeply enough, ignored their input and retaliated against at least one of their members.

“What we plan to do is to be ready at all points in time, acting in good faith, to re-forge the unity that was destroyed last week,” said Representative Dan Bishop, one of the hardliners.

McCarthy dismissed claims of retaliation and rejected allegations that he had promised deeper spending cuts.

McCarthy oversees a narrow House Republican majority of 222-213, meaning that he can lose only four votes from his own party on any measure that faces uniform opposition from Democrats.

He endured 15 floor votes in January until he finally won the vote for speaker, agreeing to a set of demands that the hardliners now say he violated to pass the debt ceiling bill. The agreement allows a single lawmaker to seek his removal through a floor vote.

Hardliners said they would not pursue that route for now.

McCarthy said he was not concerned about his political future. “If you’re worried about those things, you’re never going to govern,” he said.

(Reporting by David Morgan; editing by Andy Sullivan and Alistair Bell)

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By Tim Reid

(Reuters) – Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence formally announced his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday, setting him up for a battle with the man he once loyally stood by – former President Donald Trump.

Here are some facts about Pence’s life and career:

A SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE AND FORMER RADIO HOST

Pence, who turns 64 on Wednesday, was a Democrat in his youth. He became disillusioned with the party while in college and inspired by former President Ronald Reagan, switched to the Republican Party. He also became an evangelical Christian.

After losing two bids to become a U.S. congressman in 1988 and 1990, Pence worked as a conservative talk show host before running again for Congress in 2000, this time winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

INDIANA GOVERNOR

Pence served in the House until 2013, rising through the ranks to become a member of the chamber’s Republican leadership, with a reputation as a staunch conservative.

He ran for governor of Indiana in 2012, narrowly winning election, and assumed office in January 2013. While governor, Pence pursued a tax-cutting and socially conservative agenda, including measures to restrict abortions.

TRUMP’S VICE PRESIDENT

Pence dropped out of his gubernatorial re-election bid in 2016 to become Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

Trump’s choice of Pence in 2016 was widely seen as a move to solidify support among Christian conservatives.

Their relationship remained steady throughout Trump’s many scandals in office, with Pence demonstrating fierce loyalty during Trump’s four-year term. He repeatedly defended Trump or stayed silent.

RIFT OVER 2020 ELECTION RESULTS

Pence came under huge pressure from Trump to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden when Congress certified the election results on Jan. 6, 2021. As vice president, Pence oversaw the certification in his ceremonial role as president of the U.S. Senate.

Pence refused to do Trump’s bidding, incurring the wrath of Trump and his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol that day, some threatening to kill Pence.

In March, Pence decried Trump’s role in the riot and the threat it posed.

“His reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable,” Pence said.

COURTING EVANGELICALS

Pence will focus much of his efforts in coming months on Iowa, which kicks off the Republican nominating contest next year.

Iowa has a significant number of evangelical voters among its Republican electorate. Pence hopes a strong showing there will give him momentum and propel him into contention.

(Reporting by Tim Reid and Moira Warburton; Editing by Ross Colvin and Grant McCool)

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By Tim Reid

(Reuters) -Former Vice President Mike Pence, who served Donald Trump with unwavering loyalty but later turned on him after the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, formally challenged his former boss for the Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday.

Pence joined a crowded field of Republican White House hopefuls challenging Trump for the party’s presidential nomination. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie entered the race on Tuesday, while North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum jumped in on Wednesday, raising the number of candidates into double digits.

“I’ll always be proud of the progress we made together for a stronger and more prosperous America,” Pence said in his campaign video, criticizing current Democratic President Joe Biden but never citing Trump by name.

It is extremely rare for a vice president to run against a president he served under, and it has happened just a handful of times in U.S. history. Pence enters the Republican presidential primary with a mountain to climb, polling at just 5% and trailing Trump by 44 points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll in May.

Pence, who turns 64 on Wednesday, joins a nominating contest that is currently a two-man race between Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

The growing number of candidates could clear the way for a Trump victory, because they risk splintering the anti-Trump vote, letting the former president clinch the nomination like he did in similar circumstances in 2016, party members and strategists said.

Pence will hold a campaign kick-off event later on Wednesday near Iowa’s capital Des Moines, followed by a CNN town hall event Wednesday evening.

Pence, a conservative Christian, will focus much of his campaigning on Iowa, the first state to vote in the nominating contest next year. Iowa has a significant number of evangelical voters among its Republican electorate. Pence hopes a strong showing in the state will give him momentum and propel him into contention.

During Trump’s tumultuous four years in the White House, Pence repeatedly defended him through multiple scandals.

But Pence incurred the wrath of Trump and his supporters when, as ceremonial president of the Senate, he refused to stop the certification of Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 election.

Pence said he had no constitutional authority to meddle with the election results. Trump supporters stormed the Capitol during the certification process on Jan. 6, 2021, forcing Pence, lawmakers and staff to flee to safety.

“I had no right to overturn the election, and his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know that history will hold Donald Trump accountable,” Pence said in March.

In Twitter posts during the certification, Trump accused Pence of cowardice. Some rioters chanted for Pence to be hanged.

Trump, in remarks to conservative commentator Todd Starnes on Monday, wished Pence luck, but criticized him for allowing the certification of the 2020 election results.

“We had a strong, nice relationship until the very end,” Trump said. “We disagreed on that last moment in time on that very issue.”

Many of Trump’s diehard supporters view Pence’s refusal to overturn the election result as treachery, and would seek to block his path to the nomination.

Pence, who served as governor of Indiana and is a former congressman, still embraces many of Trump’s policies while portraying himself as an even-keeled and consensus-oriented alternative.

The success of his campaign will hinge on whether he can attract enough backers of Trump’s policies who are turned off by the former president’s rhetoric and behavior to build a viable coalition.

In his video Pence said the American dream was being “crushed under runaway inflation” as wages fell, recession loomed, and risks from unchecked immigration grew. He also said, over images of the leaders of Russia and China, that “the enemies of freedom are on the march around the world”.

“Worse still, timeless American values are under assault as never before,” he added, over video of news reports featuring police tape, transgender athletes, and drag queens.

He did not mention abortion but did say his candidacy could “give America a new beginning for life”.

Christie on Tuesday launched his campaign with a withering attack on Trump, calling him a “self-serving mirror hog” and faulting other rivals for avoiding direct confrontation with the former president.

Christie, 60, was an adviser to Trump’s 2016 White House campaign but has since become a vocal critic over Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

Burgum, 66, a wealthy former software executive who is largely unknown beyond his state, said he was a boy from rural North Dakota who rose from being a chimney sweep to found a billion-dollar IT company, before becoming a governor who cut red tape and taxes.

“To unlock the best of America, we need a leader who’s clearly focused on three things: economy, energy and national security,” Burgum said in his announcement speech.

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Ross Colvin, Grant McCool, Angus MacSwan and Daniel Wallis)

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By Tim Reid

(Reuters) – Former Vice President Mike Pence, who once served Donald Trump loyally, on Wednesday announced he would challenge his former boss for the Republican presidential nomination and blasted Trump for his role in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a speech in Iowa, which kicks off the Republican nominating contest next year, Pence issued his most forceful condemnation to date of Trump’s part in the Jan.6, 2021 riot, when Trump was trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden.

“I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asked someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again,” Pence said.

Pence joins a crowded field of Republican White House hopefuls challenging Trump for the party’s presidential nomination. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie entered the race on Tuesday, while North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum jumped in on Wednesday, raising the number of candidates into double digits.

It is extremely rare for a vice president to run against a president he served under, and it has happened just a handful of times in U.S. history. Pence enters the Republican presidential primary with a mountain to climb, polling at just 5% and trailing Trump by 44 points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll in May.

Pence, who turned 64 on Wednesday, joins a nominating contest that is currently a two-man race between Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

The growing number of candidates could clear the way for a Trump victory, because they risk splintering the anti-Trump vote, letting the former president clinch the nomination like he did in similar circumstances in 2016, party members and strategists said.

Pence will follow his announcement with a CNN town hall event Wednesday evening.

Pence, a conservative Christian, will focus much of his campaigning on Iowa. The state has a significant number of evangelical voters among its Republican electorate. Pence hopes a strong showing in the state will give him momentum and propel him into contention.

During Trump’s tumultuous four years in the White House, Pence repeatedly defended him through multiple scandals.

But he incurred the wrath of Trump and his supporters when, as ceremonial president of the Senate, he refused to stop the certification of Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 election.

Pence said he had no constitutional authority to meddle with the election results. Trump supporters stormed the Capitol during the certification process on Jan. 6, 2021, forcing Pence, lawmakers and staff to flee to safety.

In Twitter posts, Trump accused Pence of cowardice. Some rioters chanted for Pence to be hanged.

In his announcement speech on Wednesday, Pence described it as a “tragic day”, adding: “President Trump was wrong.”

“The American people deserve to know that on that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution. Now voters will be faced with the same choice. I chose the Constitution and I always will,” he said.

Trump, in remarks to conservative commentator Todd Starnes on Monday, wished Pence luck, but criticized him for allowing the certification of the 2020 election results.

“We had a strong, nice relationship until the very end,” Trump said. “We disagreed on that last moment in time on that very issue.”

Many of Trump’s diehard supporters view Pence’s refusal to overturn the election result as treachery, and would seek to block his path to the nomination.

Pence, who served as governor of Indiana and is a former congressman, still embraces many of Trump’s policies while portraying himself as an even-keeled and consensus-oriented alternative. On Wednesday he said he was “proud of the Trump-Pence administration.”

Pence also went after what he called Biden’s “disastrous presidency,” blaming him for inflation, high fuel prices and for doing the bidding of the “radical left.”

The success of Pence’s campaign will hinge on whether he can attract enough backers of Trump’s policies who are turned off by the former president’s rhetoric and behavior to build a viable coalition.

He joins a field that now includes Christie, who was an adviser to Trump’s 2016 White House campaign but has since become a vocal critic over Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.

Christie, 60, launched his campaign on Tuesday with a withering attack on Trump, calling him a “self-serving mirror hog” and faulting other rivals for avoiding direct confrontation with the former president.

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alistair Bell)

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(Reuters) – North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum entered the 2024 Republican presidential race on Wednesday touting the small town values he would bring to Washington and expanding a crowded field of candidates led by a big city mogul, Donald Trump.

Burgum, 66, a former software company executive, is largely unknown beyond his state, and he will begin his White House bid well behind rivals such as Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Burgum filed paperwork for his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission before launching his campaign in Fargo, near his small hometown of Arthur, North Dakota.

He stressed his humble origins and said the next U.S. president should be “someone who’s held jobs where you shower at the end of the day, not at the beginning.”

“It shouldn’t be a surprise that small town values have guided me my entire life,” Burgum said. “Small town values are at the core of America. And frankly, big cities could use more ideas and more values from small towns right now.” Burgum’s speech Wednesday echoed a campaign-style video released before his announcement, describing his ascent from a young boy in rural North Dakota to the founder of a billion-dollar software company and a governor who has cut red tape and taxes.

His personal wealth, derived from selling his startup to Microsoft more than two decades ago, could help fund advertising aimed at raising his national profile.

Burgum’s low-key style provides a sharp contrast with the pugnacious former President Trump. In the video, entitled “Change,” the governor argues that listening to each other “with respect” is how to solve America’s problems, rather than “anger, yelling, infighting.”

While he doesn’t name other candidates, he also appears to distance himself from DeSantis’ “anti-woke” culture wars.

“I grew up in a tiny town in North Dakota,” Burgum says. “‘Woke’ was what you did at 5 a.m. to start the day.”

His announcement event was being held in Fargo. Like many other Republican governors, Burgum has signed laws banning abortion and restricting transgender rights, including gender-affirming care for minors, although the measures go unmentioned in the video.

Unlike many Republican governors, however, Burgum has called for North Dakota to achieve carbon neutrality by the end of the decade, although his strategy involves improving carbon capture technology rather than any limits on fossil fuels.

The race to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election added two other candidates this week: former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Doina Chiacu;Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Mark Porter and Sharon Singleton)

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