On October 8th, Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Kamala Harris clashed over Trump’s policies on handling the coronavirus. Here’s what you need to know about Donald Trump’s right hand and the 48th Vice President of the United States.
Michael Richard Pence was born on June,7,1959. He grew up adulating former President John. F. Kennedy. He was also inspired by Ronald Raegan and the Republican Party. He joined the law school in 1983 and graduated in 1986. Pence married his wife Karen in 1985. Karen has also been related to several youth-related Non-Profit Organizations. They have three children: Michael, Charlotte and Audrey.
Mike Pence Early Professional Career
Pence ran for Congress in 1988 and 1990. However, he lost the two of them. Learning from his defeat, he wrote the essay named “Confessions of a Negative Campaigner” in 1991. From 1991 to 1993, he served as the President of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation.
Pence ran for Congress once again in 2000. This time, he won. Then he continuously won elections for 5 years. In 2005, he became the head of the Republican Study Committee. He lost to John Boehner in 2006 in Ohio. After two years, he was elected to the post of Republican Conference Chairman.
Mike Pence Running for Governor
Pence won the election to become the Indiana Governor in 2011. It was a close win against Democrat John Gregg. In 2013, he announced the largest tax-cut ever in the state, giving back $1.1 billion. He directed the funds towards infrastructure improvements.
He signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in March 2015. This supported the business owners who were against homosexual weddings. However, he was forced to pull out this owing to the wide opposition from several communities. The Vice President was also linked to other controversies. He passed a bill prohibiting abortion if it had a disability.
Vice Presidential Candidate
John Pence came into the National spotlight once again when he was declared as the candidate for Republican in 2016. Previously, he has been against Trump regarding several views. Still, he was considered as a good nominee for the New York business mogul because of his strong support. In July of 2016, he accepted to run for vice Presidency for the Democratic Party.
Pence was elected as the 48th US Vice President on November 8, 2016, alongside Trump as the President. Their winning was considered as the winning of working-class Americans. In November, Trump named Pence to become the head of his Transition Team. He continued as the Indiana Governor till January 9 2017.
On January 20, 2017, Pence swore to become the U.S. Capitol by Supreme Court Justice of the United States. He Had opposed Trump’s view of banning immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. In August 2018, he delivered a speech at the Pentagon in which he talked about the Trump administration’s plans to create a new branch of the U.S. Military “Space Force”.
Pence has been running the administration’s response to coronavirus since February 2020 because of his experience with the emergence of Middle Respiratory Syndrome as Indiana Governor.