Pence, who served 12 years in the U.S. House before winning election as in governor in 2012, is particularly popular with religious conservatives and spent much of his career opposing increased government spending and immigration “amnesty”.
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It is thought to be the first time a running mate has been announced on Twitter and came after Trump postponed a press conference planned for Friday morning in the wake of the terrorist attack in Nice, France. “I firmly believe a Trump-Pence Administration will be filled with leaders who share my conservative values to defend our Constitution and to accurately represent the voice of the American people”. In addition to Pence’s deadline in IN, the Republican convention kicks off in Cleveland Monday. “Mike Pence is that man”, Ryan said in a statement.
Trump arrived back at his home at Trump Tower in the early hours of Friday morning following a red-eye flight from Los Angeles, where he had meetings and fundraisers.
Pence is a tea partier, who holds all of the usual views that are common to that wing of the Republican Party. Pence had told The Indianapolis Star that he and his family attended Grace Evangelical Church in the 1990s, but by 2013, he told Fehrman they were “kind of looking for a church”.
Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said adding Pence to the ticket made the future “a lot scarier”.
Trump has been unable to rally some Republicans who question his temperament as well as his conservative bona fides.
In a Fox News interview on Thursday night, Trump said Pence had done a great job in IN and that of all the people he had interviewed for the job, “there’s nobody that agrees with me fully on everything”. Moments later, one of Pence’s aides filed paperwork with the Indiana Secretary of State’s office withdrawing him from the governor’s race. Or did the campaign get him to say okay, Pence I guess and then crank the process into motion before he had the chance to change his mind? Trump has repeatedly said that he opposed the war before it started. Mr. Pence issued an executive order authorizing the temporary dispensing of clean needles in Scott County, near the Kentucky border, despite his personal opposition to such programs and a state law barring them.
Unlike Trump, however, Pence’s taxes are unlikely to contain much of interest.
Pence, 57, only emerged on the short list in recent weeks, after better-known party heavyweights including vanquished presidential contenders like John Kasich or Ted Cruz either declined to be considered or appeared to not make the cut. The former congressman has plenty of Washington experience and a calm, thoughtful demeanor that stands in stark contrast to the bombastic Trump.
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Trump was up against a clock in unveiling his pick. In March, he signed a bill barring women from seeking abortions exclusively because a fetus could be born with disabilities, a law now facing court challenge.
