Former Vice-President Mike Pence has officially filed to run for president in 2024.

Pence, 63, represented Indiana in the House from 2001-2013, earning a reputation as a rock-ribbed conservative. From 2009-2011, he served as chairman of the House Republican Conference, the third-highest position in the House GOP caucus. He was elected governor of his state in 2012, then selected by former President Donald Trump as his running mate in 2016.

As governor, Pence implemented the largest tax cut in Indiana’s history, lowering individual income tax rates, the business personal property tax, and the corporate income tax, and also signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, later amending it after pressure from opponents. As governor, he passed two balanced budgets.

As vice president, Pence chaired the National Space Council as well as the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

After the 2020 election, Pence refused to yield to former President Trump’s request that the election results be overturned and certified the results of the election.

“I think we’ll have better choices,” Pence said recently of Trump’s effort to win the 2024 nomination. “The American people want us to return to the policies of the Trump-Pence administration, but I think they want to see leadership that reflects more of the character of the American people.”

As far back as 2016, Pence, always a staunch foe of abortion throughout his career, said “I’m pro-life and I don’t apologize for it. We’ll see Roe vs. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs.”

After five policemen were murdered in 2016 by a man whom police said “wanted to kill white people,” Pence stated,“This attack on police officers in Dallas is also a heartbreaking reminder of the risks the men and women of our law-enforcement community take every day to protect and serve our communities. In the wake of this tragedy, we must be clear that violence and threats against law enforcement officers will never be tolerated and ensure that our police have the training and resources to defend themselves as they defend our communities.”

After the Obama administration issued a directive in 2016,stating that transgender public school students had to be permitted to use bathrooms and locker rooms that aligned with their gender identities, Pence said, “The federal government has no business getting involved in issues of this nature.”

As a congressman in 2014, Pence reacted to former President Obama’s executive order that would have prevented roughly five million illegal immigrants from being deported, saying, “While reasonable people can differ on ways to improve our nation’s broken immigration system, the president’s unilateral action was an unacceptable end run around the democratic process, and joining other states in pursuing legal recourse to challenge this action is the right thing to do.”

An immigrant who came to the United States from Afghanistan and opened a business in Democrat-controlled San Francisco says that the conditions in the city are worse than in Afghanistan.

The immigrant, who only goes by Zaid, told Fox News that gangs had stolen more than $100,000 in merchandise and cash from his tobacco store, Cigarettes R Cheaper, and none of them have been caught.

“The politicians need to get a grip on this because it’s worse than Afghanistan or Iraq,” he said. “At least in Afghanistan the Taliban will cut your hand off and people are afraid to commit such a crime.”

Zaid said he sees stores around town getting robbed nearly daily, and he believes it’s because the criminals “know the police won’t do anything.”

He said the seven criminals who robbed his store were there for 20 minutes and left in two cars before police arrived.

“We have drugs issue, we have homeless issue, and on top of this these idiots come in here and take whatever they want,” Zaid said. “The city has gone downhill, especially the last two years since COVID, I’ve never seen it worse. People are afraid to come shopping here because they are either going to get robbed or someone will break into their car.”

Zaid, who has been in the U.S. for more than 30 years, said that he might shut down his store because safety is his top priority.

In April, a Whole Foods location in downtown San Francisco closed. A source in San Francisco City Hall told a local news outlet that drug use and criminal activity from individuals near the store played a role in the closure.

“We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being,” a spokesperson for Whole Foods said in a statement to the San Francisco Standard. “If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location.”

The downtown portion of San Francisco has also suffered from declining foot traffic in the years since government lockdowns sequestered employees in their homes and apartments.

Nordstrom announced last month that it was closing both of the company’s department stores in downtown San Francisco in the coming months.

Ben Zeisloft contributed to this report.

Related: T-Mobile Closes Flagship Store In Downtown San Francisco As Foot Traffic Plummets