Mike Pence

Mike Pence
50th Governor of Indiana
Incumbent
Assumed office January 14, 2013
Lieutenant	Sue Ellspermann
Preceded by	Mitch Daniels
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's 6th district
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by	Dan Burton
Succeeded by	Luke Messer
Chairman of the House Republican Conference
In office January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2011
Leader	John Boehner
Preceded by	Adam Putnam
Succeeded by	Jeb Hensarling
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana's 2nd district
In office January 3, 2001 – January 3, 2003
Preceded by	David McIntosh
Succeeded by	Chris Chocola
Personal details
Born	Michael Richard Pence (1959-06-07) June 7, 1959 Columbus, Indiana, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Residence	Governor's Residence
Alma mater	Hanover College, B.A., Indiana University, J.D.
Profession	Attorney/[1]
Religion	Evangelical Protestant[1]
Website	Website

Michael Richard "Mike" Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician, and 50th Governor of Indiana. A Republican, Pence previously served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013. Pence served as Chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009 to 2011.^[2]

On May 5, 2011, he announced that he would be seeking the Republican nomination for governor of Indiana in 2012.^[3] On November 6, 2012, Pence won the 2012 Indiana gubernatorial election.^[4] Mike Pence was mentioned as a possible candidate for President in 2008 and 2012.^[5] In September 2010, Pence was the top choice for President in a straw poll conducted by the Value Voters Summit.

Early life, education and family

Pence was born in Columbus, Indiana, one of six children of Nancy Jane (née Cawley) and Edward J. Pence, Jr., who ran a string of gas stations.^[6][7] His family was of Irish Catholic descent.^[1] He was named after his grandfather, Richard Michael Cawley, a Chicago bus driver who came to the United States from Ireland through Ellis Island.^[8] He graduated from Columbus North High School in 1977. Pence earned a B.A. in History from Hanover College in 1981 and a J.D. from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1986. While at Hanover, Pence joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, serving as his chapter's president.^[9]

Pence and his wife Karen have three children: Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey. Michael is a student at Purdue University. Charlotte is a student at DePaul University. Audrey is a student at Northeastern University. Pence is a declared Christian and attends Community Church of Greenwood in Greenwood, Indiana, an evangelical Christian Church. During his service in the U.S. House, the Pence family lived in Arlington, Virginia when Congress was in session.

Congressional and Gubernatorial elections

Pence ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988 and 1990, losing to longtime Democratic incumbent Phil Sharp with an endorsement from President Ronald Reagan.

In 2000, Pence was elected after six-year incumbent David M. McIntosh opted to run for governor of Indiana. His first term in Congress began in January 2001. The 6th District comprises all or portions of 19 counties in eastern Indiana, and was numbered as the 2nd District during his first term in Congress. He has been re-elected four more times by comfortable margins. In the 2006 House elections, he defeated Democrat Barry Welsh. He was listed as one of the top ten legislators by Esquire magazine in 2008.^[10]

In 2010, Pence was encouraged to run against incumbent Democratic Senator Evan Bayh.^[11][12][13] Pence led Senator Bayh by a 3 point margin according to Rasmussen polling done on January 21 and 24, 2010.^[14] On January 26, 2010, in an open letter to friends and supporters through his social media Facebook, Pence announced his decision not to run for the Senate; he cited his role in the Republican leadership and the belief that Republicans would win back the House in 2010 as his reasons for staying in the House of Representatives.^[15] On November 8, 2006, Mike Pence announced his candidacy for leader of the Republican Party (minority leader) in the United States House of Representatives.^[16]

Pence's release announcing his run for minority leader focused on a "return to the values" of the 1994 Republican Revolution.^[17] On November 17, Pence lost to Representative John Boehner of Ohio by a vote of 168-27-1 (the one vote went to Representative Joe Barton of Texas).^[18]

Pence defeated Reverend Barry Welsh in the 2008 House election. Pence was elected by his GOP colleagues to become the Republican Conference Chairman, the third-highest-ranking Republican leadership position. He ran unopposed and was elected unanimously. He is the first representative from Indiana to hold a House leadership position since 1981.^[2]

After the 2010 election, Pence announced that he would not run for re-election as the committee's chair.^[19] On May 5, 2011, Pence announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana in 2012.^[20][21] Pence's announcement was anticipated by his resignation of his leading position in the GOP caucus in the House. Pence won his campaign for Governor of Indiana in 2012 against Democratic nominee John R. Gregg and Libertarian nominee Rupert Boneham. Incumbent Republican Governor Mitch Daniels was term-limited.

U.S. Representative, 6th District of Indiana

Pence served for a time as the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House Republicans. He has stated his support of Israel and its right to attack facilities in Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear weapons, has defended the actions of Israel in its use of deadly force in enforcing the blockade of Gaza and has referred to Israel as "America's most cherished ally".^[22] Pence was a cosponsor of a Spending Limit Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This amendment would limit federal spending to one-fifth of the American economy - the historical average since World War II.^[23]

In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina struck the Louisiana coast, Pence favored offsetting the costs of the hurricane with $24 billion in other spending reductions.^[24]

Pence was a supporter of earmark reform. He voted against the $139.7 billion transportation-treasury spending bill in June 2006, and in favor of a series of amendments proposed that same month by Jeff Flake that would strip other members’ earmarks from the federal budget. Pence, on occasion, secured earmark projects such as $500,000 for the “Transit Acquisition and Intermodal Facility Project” in his state, as well as $250,000 for construction of a park in Portland. Pence secured earmarks for inclusion in a labor-health and human services 2007FY bill. This included $200,000 for both Ball State University’s Center for School Innovation in Muncie and to the Madison County Community Health Center in Anderson. Pence also secured $100,000 for Ivy Tech Community College in Columbus.^[25]

Pence has opposed the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine, as he believes that it would "censor the airwaves of American talk radio and American Christian radio".^[26] The doctrine has not been in effect since 1987 and in 2011, was formally removed from the FCC guidelines by the FCC.

Pence is an advocate of federal restrictions of online gambling. In 2006, he along with 34 others cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act^[27] and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.^[28]

In June 2006, Pence unveiled a plan he describes as "no amnesty immigration reform" consisting of increased border security, followed by strict enforcement of laws against hiring illegal aliens, and a guest worker program. This guest worker program requires potential participants to apply from their home country to government-approved job placement agencies that match workers with employers who cannot find Americans for the job.^[29] The plan has received support from conservative leaders such as Dick Armey.^[30] Pat Buchanan described this as "stealth amnesty," claiming that it is merely a "one week vacation" for illegal immigrants to return to their home country to apply for jobs under the program.^[31] Others (Phyllis Schlafly and Tom Tancredo) have criticized Pence's plan.^[32][33]

Pence has referred to Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin's findings that throughout history, societal collapse was brought about by the deterioration of marriage and family.^[34] He has advocated a constitutional same-sex marriage ban, but did not champion such a proposed ban for his first year as governor.^[35]

Pence supported the joint resolution authorizing military action against Iraq, otherwise known as the Iraq Resolution.^[36] The resolution cited factors including Iraq's noncompliance with the conditions of the 1991 ceasefire agreement, including interference with U.N. weapons inspectors, Iraq's "brutal repression of its civilian population," and Iraq's hostility towards the United States as demonstrated by the 1993 assassination attempt on former President George H. W. Bush and firing on coalition aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones following the 1991 Gulf War as reasons for taking action.^[37]

During the Iraq War, he opposed setting a public withdrawal date from Iraq. During an April 2007 visit to Baghdad, Pence and John McCain visited Shorja market, the site of a deadly attack in February, 2007, that claimed the lives of 61 people. During the visit, Pence and Senator John McCain were accompanied by General David Petraeus. Pence and McCain described the visit as evidence that the security situation in Iraqi markets have improved.^[38] The visit was criticized by the New York Times as giving a false indication of how secure the area was due to the extremely heavy security forces McCain brought with him. The visit to the market took place under large security including helicopters overhead.^[39]

Mike Pence has opposed closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and trying the suspected terrorists in the U.S.^[40] Pence believes that “the Obama administration must overturn this wrongheaded decision”.^[40] As an alternative, Pence has said that the "enemy combatants" should be tried in a military tribunal.^[40]

After the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the Affordable Care Act on June 28, 2012 he was quoted by sources at a closed door meeting as likening the ruling upholding the Democratic health care law to the September 11 terrorist attacks.^[41] He immediately apologized for making the statement.^[42]

His Committee assignments in the U.S. House included: Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia (Vice Chair), Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution (Vice Chair), and Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet. While in Congress he belonged to the Congressional Internet Caucus, International Conservation Caucus, Sportsmen's Caucus, and the Tea Party Caucus.

Governor of Indiana

Pence began his first term as the 50th Governor of Indiana on January 14, 2013.

Controversies

During Pence's first term as the 50th Governor of Indiana, he was criticized for censoring comments on his official government Facebook page.^[43]

Electoral history

2002

2004

2006

2008

2010

2012

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government document "Mike Pence Official Biography".

External links

• Governor Mike Pence official Indiana government site
• Mike Pence for Governor official campaign site
• Collected news and commentary at The Indianapolis Star
• Profile at SourceWatch
• Candidate information from Our Campaigns

Congress

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission

v t e Governors of Indiana Territorial (1800–1816) Harrison Posey State (since 1816) Jennings Boon W. Hendricks Ray Noble Wallace Bigger J. Whitcomb Dunning Wright Willard Hammond Lane Morton Baker T. Hendricks Williams Gray Porter Gray Hovey Chase Matthews Mount Durbin Hanly Marshall Ralston Goodrich McCray Branch Jackson Leslie McNutt Townsend Schricker Gates Schricker Craig Handley Welsh Branigin E. Whitcomb Bowen Orr Bayh O'Bannon Kernan Daniels Pence See also: Governor of Indiana