GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — Former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, made a visit to Grand Rapids Wednesday night. The two spoke at Frederik Meijer Gardens for an event.
The event comes the same day NBC News sources reported that the former vice president will be launching his presidential campaign in Des Moines, Iowa on June 7. Tonight’s conversation was titled, “What Do Conservatives Believe?” It was centered around the nature and future of conservatism in America.
During the event, Pence was asked his thoughts on a limited government.
“First and foremost, I really do believe that free enterprise and a free market, has created the greatest standard of living in the history of the world,” he said. Ensuring and preserving a limited government is an essential element to preserving the free market.”
Pence was joined on stage by former President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, who resigned from Trump’s cabinet following the Jan. 6 riot at the capitol.
Pence was asked, who he would choose as education secretary if he was to become president.
“Well, I ran the transition in 2016, so you know the one I was looking for. We found her,” said Pence, in reference to DeVos.
DeVos also talked about how the pandemic has affected education in the U.S.
“If there was a silver lining to the pandemic, it was that families had a front-row seat to see what their children were actually learning,” she said. “Whether it was their kitchen table or their living room, they saw either an attempt at distance learning that was so feeble and meager, and so non-robust, or they saw curriculum that was absolutely antithetical to their families’ values.”
Michigan will once again be a key state in the 2024 race to the White House and the Republican field is growing quickly. NBC News is reporting that along with Pence, Chris Christie will also join the field next week. In the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Pence is in 4th place behind Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Nikki Haley.
