Former Vice President Mike Pence, a candidate for the GOP nomination, said Wednesday on FNC’s “America’s Newsroom” that populism was a pathway for “defeat for the Republican Party.”

Pence said, “Well, look, you look at this Republican field, whether it’s my former running mate or some of his imitators, and there is a push in this Republican primary to to move us away from our party’s historic commitment to American leadership on the world stage, to a commitment to fiscal responsibility and reform in the face of a massive national debt crisis.”

He continued, “You know, I came to this party, during the Reagan years, and and I really believe not only the pathway to victory for the Republican Party in the fall of 24, but the way we restore security and prosperity for the American people is to deliver a standard bearer and an agenda that’s built on that commonsense conservative agenda that has always delivered greater security and prosperity for the American people.”

Pence added, “I think it’s a real choice in the party between whether we stay on the path of the traditional conservative agenda that’s defined this movement for the last 50 years and really is grounded in American ideals or whether we are going to follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles. I really believe that’s a pathway not only to defeat for the Republican Party but ultimately it is the pathway to disappointment and decline for our party and for our country.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN