Prominent Pence
Take a look back at the governor’s history in politics
1 HE SAYS HE’S “A CHRISTIAN, A CONSERVATIVE AND A REPUBLICAN, IN THAT ORDER.”
Pence has long said his approach to governing is informed not by party, but by his faith and his love of the Constitution.
He’s opposed to abortion, and in Congress, he led the federal government to the brink of shutdown in 2011 in a failed attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.
A born-again evangelical Christian, Pence has been a strong proponent of religious freedom and says marriage should be between a man and a woman.
2 HE WAS RAISED CATHOLIC AND IDOLIZED JFK
Pence and his five siblings grew up in Columbus, Ind., in a family of devout Catholic churchgoers. He told The Indianapolis Star in a profile in 2012 that as a young man, he was inspired to get involved in politics by figures such as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
He volunteered for the Bartholomew County Democratic Party in 1976 and voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980.
In college, when he met his future wife, Karen, at an evangelical church, he became a born-again Christian. Pence said his political views, too, began to shift. “I started to identify with that kind of common-sense conservatism of Ronald Reagan,” Pence told The
Star, “and before I knew it, I decided I was a Republican and moved up here in Indianapolis in 1983 to go to law school.”
3 HE WAS A SIX-TERM CONGRESSMAN, SERVING FROM 2001 TO 2012
In the House, Pence’s championing of conservative social issues gained him the most attention, but he also fought to shrink the size of government, showing a willingness to buck party leadership to do so.
As a freshman in 2001, he opposed the No Child Left Behind education bill supported by President George W. Bush, a fellow Republican. That law sought to raise student performance and increase accountability for educators. Pence calls it an unfunded mandate that grew government.
In later years, he persuaded Republicans to cut spending in the federal budget before approving money for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in 2005. He also opposed the bank bailout in 2008.
4 HE SIGNED RFRA AND GAVE A DISASTROUS INTERVIEW DEFENDING IT
Over the objections of the business community and LGBT rights groups, Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015, setting off the biggest controversy of his political career.
Proponents said the law was needed to provide protection for exercising one’s religious beliefs free of government intrusion. The measure in essence prohibited the government from intruding on a person’s religious liberty unless it could prove a compelling interest in imposing that burden and do so in the least restrictive way.
Opponents feared the act could be used to discriminate against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in the name of religion. It explicitly overruled human rights ordinances that extend anti-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Major employers and conventions threatened to boycott the state.
The weekend after the bill was signed, Pence attempted to defend the legislation and douse the fire. Instead, he may have only fueled it.
In a nationally televised interview, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Pence six times whether the new law would allow a business to discriminate against gay couples. Six times, Pence ducked the question.
“We’ve been doing our level best, George, to correct the gross mischaracterization of this law that has been spread all over the country by many in the media … and the online attacks against the people of our state,” Pence said. “I’m just not going to stand for it.”
The interview was widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike, who said he didn’t do enough to dispel the idea that Indiana was intolerant of the LGBT community.
Shortly after its passage, the Indiana General Assembly passed a “fix,” which Pence signed into law. It prevents RFRA from eroding human rights protections. The Indiana Pastors Alliance said it felt “betrayed” by Pence and lawmakers tweaking the original law.
5 HE’S NO FIREBRAND.
Pence’s polite demeanor stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who likes to give his opponents names such as “Crooked Hillary” and “Lyin’ Ted.”
Still, in his first two campaigns for office in 1988 and 1990, Pence did go negative — something he later said he regretted.
“I think negative personal attacks have no place in elective politics,” Pence said during his run for governor in 2012. “I just think ... that negative campaigning I now know is wrong. It’s wrong to use one’s brief moment in a political debate to talk about what’s wrong with your opponent, as opposed to what’s right with your ideas.”