Iowa Republicans say Indiana Gov. Mike Pence adds a conservative record to Donald Trump’s presidential ticket.
By Brent Griffiths and Maria Curi
A number of Iowa Republicans welcome Donald Trump’s pick of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate. Such a selection, they say, could quiet any questions of Trump’s lack of conservatism.
“I think Mike Pence was fantastic choice for VP,” said Jeff Jorgensen, the chairman of Pottawattamie County Republicans. “We needed a solid conservative Republican who has a been in the trenches and knows how to get things done.”
Trump, who formally became the GOP’s presidential nominee Tuesday night, said he tapped Pence because of his record as a one-term governor — Pence was up for re-election this year. He will speak on prime-time television and in front of delegates at the GOP’s national convention tonight in Cleveland.
“He’s really got the skills of a highly talented executive, leading the state of Indiana to jobs, growth, and opportunity, in spite of the relentless obstacles put in his way and every state’s way by the Obama administration,” Trump said about Pence while introducing him at a press conference in New York over the weekend.
Once a top Republican on Capitol Hill, Pence also fulfills Trump’s need of someone with experience in Washington. Even before the former star of NBC’s “The Apprentice” considered specific running mates, Trump stressed that he wanted a vice president who would complement his business experience. The 57-year-old Pence also served six-terms in Congress and served as chairman of the Republican conference before he left to run for governor.
“He is a conservative and has experience as a congressman and at the executive level as a governor,” said Scott County Republican Chairwoman Judy Davidson. “It was a great choice.”
For a candidate such as Trump, who in the past has favored women’s choice on abortion and supportive of Democratic candidates, Pence adds a definite conservative brand to the GOP’s ticket.
In 1999, Trump told Tim Russert, then host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that he had more liberal views because he had lived in New York all of his life — a line Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has used against Trump.
“I’ve lived in New York City and Manhattan all my life,” Trump said. “So, you know, my views are a little different than if I lived in Iowa, perhaps.”
One longtime Iowa political expert said such a running with social conservative bona fides would serve Trump well in a place such as Iowa.
“I think Pence is basically a strong conservative in a very identifiable way,” said David Redlawsk, the incoming chairman of the Political Science & International Relations Department at the University of Delaware and co-author of a book on the Iowa caucuses.
Trump finished second in the state’s 2016 Republican caucuses despite leading many public preference polls in the days and weeks before caucus night. Cruz, an outspoken conservative voice in the U.S. Senate, edged out the New York businessman.
Pence has certainly not lived in New York all of his life. In fact, he was in the news in the spring of 2015, when he signed into law a religious-freedom bill that went further than most states had gone before. The law overruled localities that had passed anti-discrimination protections for LGBT citizens and explicitly provided protection for for-profit businesses if they were ever sued on discrimination grounds.
Pence’s popularity took a nosedive in his home state of Indiana. Fellow Republicans, business owners, and representatives of the NCAA and professional sports chastised him and the state. Some even threatened to pull operations or cancel plans if the law was not amended, which eventually happened.
Not all Iowa social conservatives welcomed the news.
Radio host Steve Deace, a Cruz supporter who loathes Trump, wrote that Pence was a coward for capitulating to criticism of the religious-freedom law.
“It was the worst that we’ve ever been stabbed in the back by a Republican,” Deace said about Pence’s change of heart in Politico’s Playbook.
Cecil Stinemetz, an at-large Republican National Convention delegate from Urbandale, was also unimpressed with the Pence pick. He also is not a fan of Trump.
“Pence sold the religious people down the river when he caved on the religious-liberty case,” Stinemetz said in an email. “He fits with Donald Trump well. Donald Trump is who he is, and that will not change no matter who his VP is. You do not change a pathological liar overnight or with a couple of picks.”