Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork Monday declaring his campaign for president in 2024, challenging his former boss, Donald Trump, just two years after their time in the White House ended with a riot at the US Capitol and Pence ran for his life.

Pence, the nation’s 48th vice president, will formally launch his bid for the Republican nomination with a video and kickoff event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday, his 64th birthday, according to people familiar with his plans. He made his candidacy official with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.

While Trump is currently leading the early battle for the nomination, with Florida Gov. Consistently second-placed Ron DeSantis, Pence supporters see a job for a reliable conservative who embraces many of the previous administration’s policies, but without the constant tumult.

While he regularly praises the achievements of the Trump-Pence administration, in many ways a Pence nomination would represent a return to positions long associated with the Republican establishment but abandoned when Trump reformed the party in his image. Pence has warned of the growing populist tide in the party, and advisers see him as the only traditional Reagan-style conservative in the race.

A staunch opponent of abortion rights, Pence supports a national ban on the procedure and has campaigned against transgender-affirming policies in schools. He has argued that changes to Social Security and Medicare, such as raising the age of qualification, must be on the table to keep the programs solvent that both Trump and DeSantis have opposed, and criticized DeSantis for his escalating feud with Disney. He has also said the US should offer Ukraine more support against Russian aggression, while admonishing Putin’s apologists in the party who are unwilling to stand up to the Russian leader.

Pence, who describes himself as a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order, has spent months laying the groundwork for an anticipated run, holding events in early voting states like Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire, the visiting churches, delivering policy speeches and courting donors.

Pence’s team sees Iowa and its evangelical Christian constituents as crucial to his potential path to victory. Advisers say he plans to campaign aggressively in the state, hitting every one of the 99 counties before the country’s first primaries next year.

The campaign is expected to rely heavily on town halls and high street shopping aimed at reintroducing Pence to voters who only know him from his time as Trump’s second-in-command. Pence served in Congress and as governor of Indiana for more than a decade before being tapped as Trump’s running mate in 2016.

As Vice President, Pence was an extremely loyal defender of Trump until the days leading up to January 6, 2021, when Trump falsely attempted to convince Pence and his supporters that Pence had the power to unilaterally overturn the results of the 2020 election .

That day, a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol building after being spurred on by Trump’s lies that the 2020 election had been stolen. Many in the crowd chanted Hang Mike Pence! as Pence, his staff, and his family ran to safety, hiding in a Senate loading dock.

Pence has called Trump’s actions dangerous and said the country is looking for a new kind of leadership in the 2024 election.

I think we have better choices, he recently told The Associated Press. The American people want us to return to the policies of the Trump-Pence administration, but I think they want to see leadership more reflective of the character of the American people.

Pence has since spent the 2 1/2 years strategically distancing Trump. But he faces skepticism from both anti-Trump voters who see him as too close to the former president and from Trump loyalists, many of whom still blame him for failing to heed Trump’s demands for the to reverse the pair’s electoral defeat, although Pence’s role overseeing the counting of the Electoral College’s votes was purely ceremonial and he never had the power to influence the results.

Pence joins a busy Republican field that includes Trump, DeSantis, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former governor of Arkansas. Asa Hutchinson. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie plans to launch his own campaign Tuesday evening in New Hampshire and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will announce his bid Wednesday in Fargo.

With Trump, a thrice-married reality star, facing skepticism among some Republicans during his 2016 run, his choice of Pence as running mate raised concerns from evangelical Christians and others that he wasn’t conservative enough. As vice president, Pence refused to ever publicly criticize the former president and often played the role of an emissary, trying to translate Trump’s unorthodox rhetoric and policy proclamations, especially on the world stage.

After Trump’s legal efforts to prevent the defeat of the 2020 election were quashed by courts and state officials, he and his team targeted Jan. 6, the date when a joint session of Congress would convene to declare victory. formally endorse President Joe Biden. In the weeks leading up to the session, Trump engaged in an unprecedented pressure campaign to convince Pence that he had the power to throw away the electoral votes from battlefield states won by Biden, even if he did not.

While the riot was going on and after Pence and his family rushed off the Senate floor and went into hiding, Trump tweeted, Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done. Video footage of the attack shows rioters reading Trump’s words aloud and crowds clamoring for Pence to be hanged. A makeshift gallows was photographed outside the Capitol.

Pence has said that Trump endangered my family and everyone in the Capitol that day and that history will hold him accountable.

Despite his harrowing experience, Pence resisted attempts to testify in investigations into Trump’s actions on and leading up to Jan. 6. investigations, though he did eventually testify before a grand jury.

Only six former US vice presidents have been elected to the White House, including Biden, who is running for a second term.