Mike Pence

Background

Michael Richard Pence was born on June 7, 1959, in Columbus, Indiana, to Ann Jane Nancy Cawley and Edward Joseph Pence Jr., who owned a chain of gas stations. During the Korean War, his father served in the United States Army and was awarded the Bronze Star in 1953, which Pence has in his office, along with a commendation letter and a receiving image. His father is of German and Irish origin, while his mother also has Irish ancestry. Edward Joseph Pence Sr., his paternal grandfather, worked at the Chicago stockyards. He was named after his maternal grandfather, Richard Michael Cawley, who immigrated from Doocastle, County Mayo, Ireland, to the United States via Ellis Island. His maternal grandmother’s parents were from Doonbeg, County Clare, Ireland. Pence graduated from Columbus North High School in 1977. In 1981, he received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Hanover College, and in 1986, he obtained a Juris Doctorate from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis’ Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He became the chapter president of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity while at Hanover. From 1981 until 1983, after graduating, he worked as an admissions counselor at the institution. Like the rest of his family, Pence was a Roman Catholic and a Democrat during his boyhood and early adulthood.

He volunteered for the Bartholomew County Democratic Party in 1976 and voted for Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election, and he has stated that personalities like John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. motivated him to get involved in politics. Pence abandoned the Catholic Church while in college and became an evangelical, born-again Christian, much to his mother’s chagrin. During this time in his life, his political beliefs began to turn to the right, which Pence attributes to the common-sense conservatism of Ronald Reagan with which he came to identify.

Pence worked as a private practice attorney after graduating from law school in 1986. He ran for Congress against Democratic incumbent Philip Sharp in 1988 but lost. He campaigned against Sharp again in 1990, abandoning his job to spend full-time on the campaign, but was defeated. Pence revitalized his political career by competing for the United States House of Representatives again in 2000, this time capturing the seat in Indiana’s second Congressional District after six-year incumbent David M. McIntosh chose to run for governor of Indiana. The district includes all or parts of 19 eastern Indiana counties. As a congressman, Pence repeated the radio slogan, defining himself as a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order. Pence was a member of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress and a member of the House of Representatives for 12 years. He was the first Indiana representative to occupy a House leadership position since 1981. In 2009, he was elected as the Republican Conference chairman.

Pence stated in May 2011 that he would run for governor of Indiana as a Republican in 2012. Pence ran on a platform that lauded his predecessor’s accomplishments and promised to continue Mitch Daniels’s educational reform and business deregulation. Former Indiana House Speaker John R. Gregg was the Democratic nominee. Despite great name recognition and a popular outgoing governor of the same party, Pence found himself in a tight contest, eventually winning with just under 50% of the vote, and fewer than 3% ahead of Gregg, with Libertarian contender Rupert Boneham taking the majority of the remaining votes. On January 14, 2013, Pence was sworn in as Indiana’s 50th governor. Pence was elected vice president of the United States as Trump’s running partner on November 8, 2016. He was named chairman of President-elect Trump’s transition team shortly after the election. During the transition period of the Trump administration, Pence was reported to have a high level of influence in the administration due to his roles as a mediator between Trump and congressional Republicans, reassuring conservatives about Trump’s conservative credentials, and determining Trump’s cabinet. Following Schuyler Colfax (1869 to 1873), Thomas A. Hendricks (1885), Charles W. Fairbanks (1905 to 1909), Thomas R. Marshall (1913 to 1921), and Dan Quayle (1989 to 1993), Pence was Indiana’s sixth vice president. When he left the vice presidency, Pence did not have a permanent address in Indiana. He and his wife resided at the homes of several Indiana Republican politicians for several months after leaving government. The Pences purchased property north of Indianapolis in May 2021. He joined the Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow in February 2021.