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Mike Pence: A Conservative Loyal Voice for Trump

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence takes center stage
   Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention, a loyal ally of
   President Donald Trump during their nearly four years at the top of the
   American government.

   Pence is speaking from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, where U.S.
   soldiers defended the young United States from a British attack in
   1814, inspiring the writing of the U.S. national anthem, "The
   Star-Spangled Banner." It is a venue in keeping with the Republicans'
   convention theme of "Honoring the Great American Story."

   Pence was relatively unknown nationally four years ago when Trump, a
   first-time politician, picked him as his running mate. At the time,
   Pence was the governor of the Midwestern state of Indiana after a
   six-term stint as a congressman, a total of 16 years in which he built
   a solid conservative policy record but was facing a difficult
   re-election contest for another term as governor.

   Conservative credentials

   Trump, as much as anything at the time, needed Pence's conservative
   credentials to bolster his underdog chances against Democrat Hillary
   Clinton. Pence, married to his schoolteacher wife, Karen, for 35 years,
   was the polar opposite of Trump, a brash New York developer and reality
   TV show host on his third marriage.

   Moreover, Pence had built an unparalleled link to evangelical
   Christians, an important mostly Republican bloc of conservative voters
   that might total a quarter of the U.S. electorate. In his upset 2016
   victory, Trump won a huge portion of the evangelical vote, in no small
   part because of Pence's place on the national Republican ticket.

   From his earliest days as a politician, Pence has described himself as
   "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order."

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