Former vice president Mike Pence on Wednesday announced that he is entering the running for the 2024 presidential election, setting up a heated competition for the Republican nomination with former president Donald Trump. In a launch video for his campaign, Mr Pence said a “different leadership” could turn the country around to prevent the American dream from being “crushed”. “Today our party and our country need a leader that will appeal, as Lincoln said, to the better angels of our nature,” Mr Pence continued. While the video highlights Mr Pence’s work as vice president, it avoids making a single mention of the man he served during that period – Mr Trump. In an increasingly crowded GOP field, Mr Pence faces competition from fellow ex-Trump administration figures, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. Mr Pence served as a member of the House of Representatives between 2001 and 2013 and as Indiana’s governor between 2013 and 2017, but rose to international attention as Mr Trump’s running-mate in 2016. He is the first vice president in modern US history to run against his former running mate.