Doug West - Vice President Mike Pence: A Short Biography

Vice President Mike Pence A Short Biography

Copyright 2017 Doug West

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may bereproduced in any form without written permission from the author.Reviewers may quote brief passages in reviews.

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Welcome to the book, Vice President MikePence - A Short Biography. This book is part of the 30 MinuteBook Series and, as the name of the series implies, if you are anaverage reader this book will take around 30 minutes to read. Sincethis short book is not meant to be an all-encompassing biography ofMike Pence, you may want to know more about this man and hisaccomplishments. To help you with this, there are several goodreferences at the end of this book. Thank you for purchasing thisbook. I hope you enjoy your time reading about Mike Pence.

Doug West
January 2017

Mike Pence is an American politician who hasbeen serving as the fiftieth governor of Indiana since January2013. He is currently the vice president-elect of the United Statesand will take office in January 2017, entering history as theforty-eighth vice president of the United States. In 2008,Esquire magazine included Pence on the list of the ten bestmembers of the Congress, after Pence had positioned himself amongthe conservatives as an ideologue with strong principles. He wasconsidered a viable Republican candidate for the presidentialelections of 2008 and 2012. In September 2010, Pence was voted thetop choice for president in a straw poll run by the Values VoterSummit.

Mike Pence is considered the mostconservative vice president-elect of the past forty years, and hisname has often reached nationwide attention due to severalcontroversies.

This short book covers the life of Mike Pencefrom his early years growing up in Indiana and chronicles his riseto power through the political ranks to become the vicepresident-elect of the United States.

Figure Mike Pence in 2016

I'm aChristian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order. Mike Pence

Mike Pence was born Michael Richard Pence onJune 7, 1959, in Columbus, Indiana, from parents Nancy Jane (neCawley) and Edward J. Pence, Jr., an Irish Catholic Democrat couplewho oversaw a group of gas stations in Columbus. Columbus, Indianawas a small town of around twenty-thousand people at the time andis in the south-central part of the state. Pence was named afterhis Irish grandfather, Richard Michael Cawley, who immigrated tothe United States from Ireland and found a job as a bus driver inChicago, Illinois, soon after his arrival through Ellis Island. Theparents of Pences maternal grandmother were from a little town inCounty Clare, Ireland. As a child, Pence attended parochial schooland often served as an altar boy.

Pence went to Columbus North High School andgraduated in 1977. After high school he earned a BA degree inhistory from Hanover College, graduating in 1981. During his timeat college, he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity wherehe eventually became chapter president. Following his graduation,he worked as an admissions counselor at the same college, between1981 and 1983. He continued his studies, pursuing a law degree atRobert H. McKinney School of Law, part of Indiana University.

Pence become politically involved in histeens and early adulthood when he volunteered for the BartholomewCounty Democratic Party in 1976. His interest in politics wasinspired by his great admiration for John F. Kennedy and MartinLuther King, Jr. After meeting his future wife in college, Pencerenounced Catholicism to become an evangelical, born-againChristian. While in 1994 Pence declared himself a Catholic, a yearlater he and his family had all joined the Grace EvangelicalChurch. Pence commented on his decision, saying that his family wasin some way looking for a church that could meet their faith. Atthe same time, his political views also began an important shift tothe political right. Pence realized he identified better with theconservatism of Ronald Reagan.

In 1986, after having obtained his law schooldiploma, Pence found a job as an attorney in private practice. Hispolitical involvement grew significantly and he ran for acongressional seat in 1988 and in 1990. Both times, Pence lost infavor of Democratic candidate, Phil Sharp. Despite quitting his jobto be able to work full-time on his political pursuits, Penceundermined his own campaign by using political donations to pay hismortgage, personal credit card bills, groceries, car payment forhis wife, and even golf tournament fees. Even though this was legalat that time, it had a negative impact on his popularity.

During his campaign from 1990, Pence wasinvolved in a scandal that would precede a long trail ofcontroversies that shaped his political career. Pence ran a TVadvertisement in which an actor, imitating a Middle Eastern accentand dressed in a robe and headdress, thanked Phil Sharp, Pencesopponent, for taking no action in weaning the United States offimported oil during his chairman term in a House committee on powerand energy. The advertisement provoked strong criticism, and Pencedefended himself by stipulating that his goal had been to emphasizeSharps weakness as a leader, rather than making judgments aboutArabs. The scandal did not die down easily and the following year,Pence resorted to writing an essay, Confessions of a NegativeCampaigner, in which he apologized for running negative directadvertisement against Sharp. After this political failure, he wasappointed as president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation in1991 and he joined the State Policy Network. In 1993, he left thefoundation, after he became busier hosting a radio talk-showprogram in Rushville, Indiana, called The Mike Pence Show,which aired on 18 different stations throughout the state. A fewyears later, he became the host of a political talk show fromIndianapolis, where he worked from 1995 to 1999.

In 2000, Pence decided to resurrect hispolitical career, and the first step was to run for the US House ofRepresentatives. He succeeded in winning the seat in IndianasSecond congressional district, a district comprised of almost 19counties in eastern Indiana, against the Democratic rival, RobertW. Rock. Pence remained loyal to the image he conveyed during histime as a talk-show host, promoting himself as a Christian, aconservative, and a Republican, in that order.

As soon as he took office, he becameacknowledged as a man with strong convictions and an unyieldingwill, determined to go his own way. During his first years inCongress, he opposed two of President Bushs policies: the No ChildLeft Behind action and the Medicare prescription drug development.His popularity grew and he was re-elected four more times. As heclimbed the leadership structures of the party, Pence became thechairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of HouseRepublicans self-described as conservative. He held the positionfor two years, between 2005 and 2007. During the two Houseelections of 2006 and 2008, Pence defeated Democrat Barry Welsh.While in Congress, Pence become involved with the Tea PartyCaucus.