Former Vice President Mike Pence to visit Arizona border with Gov. Doug Ducey, speak in Phoenix

Former Vice President Mike Pence will visit Arizona and the southern border on Monday, where he is expected to discuss border security issues just weeks before voters begin casting ballots in the state's primary election.

Pence is slated to receive a briefing from Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels in the morning at Cochise College in Sierra Vista before visiting a section of the border where the barrier wall ends, according to sheriff's spokesperson Carol Capas.

Pence will then travel to Phoenix for a Monday afternoon speech to an invite-only crowd hosted at the Arizona Commerce Authority downtown. 

Immigration, and the adjacent issue of border security, consistently rank as a top concern for Republican primary voters in Arizona and those around the nation. Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, a friend of Pence's and an outspoken critic of the Biden administration's handling of border issues, is expected to travel the state with the former vice president.

Pence's visit will come just days after a congressional panel investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, renewed focus on former President Donald Trump's last-ditch effort to pressure Pence to overturn the 2020 election result.

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, during an initial televised hearing of the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday, revealed Trump supported calls for violence against Pence, who stood up to Trump's pressure campaign and affirmed Congress' certification of Joe Biden as the winner.

"And aware of the rioters' chants to hang Mike Pence, the president responded with this sentiment, quote, 'Maybe our supporters have the right idea,' Mike Pence quote, 'deserves it,'" Cheney said during an opening statement at the hearing.

Pence starts charting political future

Pence's defiance of Trump has vaulted him in the eyes of some Republicans, while he's now an enemy to others faithful to the former president's continued and false insistence he won the 2020 election. Despite dozens of lawsuits and an Arizona ballot review, no evidence supports the claim.

Three months after leaving the White House in early 2021, Pence founded a political advocacy group called Advancing American Freedom, a conservative policy group that was seen as an early indicator of Pence's future political ambitions. Ducey serves on the group's advisory board.

Ducey, who leaves office in January following two terms as governor, has made border issues a primary focus of his years in office. He has urged the Biden administration to do more and led pressure campaigns by Republican governors across the nation calling for action, while sending hundreds of Arizona National Guard troops to southern Arizona to help support law enforcement agencies.

Last month, the state began busing migrants from border communities to Washington, D.C. The Ducey administration portrayed that as an effort to alleviate a burden on strapped service providers, though the move offered Ducey another way to portray the federal government as inert on border issues.

Pence is considered a possible contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, a race that could feature Trump, too.

The former vice president campaigned in Arizona ahead of the 2020 contest, and has several ties to the state beyond politics. His son, Marine pilot Michael Pence Jr., was stationed in Yuma. Last November, Pence visited Phoenix to speak to the Republican Governors Association, which Ducey co-chairs, during a private event.

Reach reporter Stacey Barchenger at stacey.barchenger@arizonarepublic.com or 480-416-5669. Follow her on Twitter @sbarchenger.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.