Michael Pence

Michael Pence Facts and Information

Important Points

• Mike Pence is the 48th and current Vice President of the United States of America
• Pence previously served as the 50th Governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017
• Pence, in his role as Vice President, serves as a mediator between President Trump and congressional Republicans; this gives him a large degree of influence and power in his role.
• In February 2017, Pence became the first Vice President to cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm Betsey DeVos as the Secretary of Education. He’s cast four tie-breaking votes so far.

The Rundown

Who would’ve thought Mike Pence would be the current Vice President of the United States of America? The answer: not many people before the 2016 election. But somehow, reality television host, business mogul, and Twitter-happy Donald Trump along with his trusty political sidekick won the election and brought us to the American we’re in today. So…one can say Mike Pence is a pretty clever dude when it comes to being the second in command for one of the most powerful countries in the world!
 
Michael Richard “Mike” Pence was born June 7, 1959 in Columbus Indiana. His pride in the United States began early because his dad served during the Korean War and received the Bronze Star in 1953. Mikey P. is super proud of his father’s award and still displays it in his office to this day. After graduating from Columbus North High School in 1977, Pence went on to earn a BA in history from Hanover College and a JD from Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law. As an undergraduate he served as chapter president of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, showing his future prowess as a leader.
 
Interestingly enough, Mikey P. was a Roman Catholic and a Democrat in his early career. He voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980 and always said he was inspired by the notorious JFK and MLK Jr.  To the “great disappointment of his mother,” he became a born-again Christian and began to identify with the conservatism of Ronald Reagan.
 
Pence tried to get into politics in 1988 and 1990, but lost to Phil Sharp twice. He did some sketchy things like used political donations to pay for his mortgage and credit card bills. This wasn’t illegal at the time but apparently hurt him enough to lose twice. After some stupid campaign decisions, he took some time away from politics and ran again in 2000 for a US House of Representatives seat. He adopted this slogan that he’s “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” His super Christian and conservative self was also a member of the Tea Party Caucus. Mikey P. was then reelected in four times. During the 12 years he was in the House, he introduced 90 bills and resolutions but none made it all the way through.
 
In 2012, he ran for governor of Indiana because incumbent Mitch Daniels was on his last term legally. Now, since the United States implemented term limits, politicians actually follow them because we’re a democracy and stuff. Pence won against John Gregg, a Democrat, and Rupert Boneham, a Libertarian, but it was super close. He was sworn in as the 50th governor of the state in January 2013.
 
As a conservative Republican governor, Pence continued conservative fiscal and economic policy. He inherited a yuuuuugeeeee $2 billion budget reserve from predecessor Daniels and added to it….but nothing comes without a price. He required state agencies including the public universities to reduce funding ($24 million from colleges and universities was cut that year alone). After that, Indiana saw the slowest growing economy during Mikey P’s term.
 
Mikey P. also held some pretty ultra conservative views on stuff like LGBTQ rights and abortion. Pence signed that Indiana Senate Bill 101 aka the Indiana “religious objections” bill” into law and people went nuts. Lots of critics felt the law allowed for discrimination of LGBTQ people and big organizations like the NCAA tried to pull major tournaments from there. Pence defended the law but eventually conceded and signed legislation revising the law to prevent potential discrimination. Pence also signed super restrictive abortion laws…that included that aborted and miscarried fetuses bust be buried or cremated. Yup. It ended up that a preliminary injunction blocked the bill and US District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt determined the bill would likely be unconstitutional. Mikey P. stuck to his beliefs and was the highest level government official to attend the March for Life Rally in DC on January 27, 2017.
 
So, as we all know Trump won the 2016 election and therefore Pence became the current VP. Mikey P. didn’t always support Trump though. He endorsed Ted Cruz initially but obviously got behind Trump when he got the nod for VP candidate. After the biggest upset in political history, the Trump-Pence ticket won the electoral college vote and therefore Pence became the official vice president. Since Trump never held elected office, Mikey P. apparently had a large degree of influence in the administration because he essentially served as mediator between Trump and congressional Republicans.  Pence did a lot of VP-ish things, but the biggest and most historical thing he did was become the first vice president to cast a tie-breaking vote in Congress. He confirmed Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. He then cast another to advance a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. He’s cast four tie-breaking votes to date, making him a super active president of the US Senate.