Donald Trump tweeted Friday that Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana was his choice for vice president.
“I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate,” he wrote on Twitter. “News conference (Saturday) at 11:00 A.M.”
Trump originally planned to make the formal announcement at a news conference Friday but canceled after the attack in Nice, France, that killed at least 84 people.
A prolific Twitter user with nearly 10 million followers, he has regularly made comments either announcing news or causing controversy through the campaign season.
Rumors circulated for weeks before the presumptive Republican nominee named Pence as his running mate. Along with the Indiana governor, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama had been mentioned as other “finalists” in the Trump veepstakes.
Mike Pence, 57, has been the governor of Indiana since 2013 and was chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009 to 2011.
In September 2010, a straw poll conducted by the Value Voter’s Summit ranked him the top choice for president.
He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988 and 1990, losing to Democratic incumbent Phil Sharp; Pence had been endorsed by President Ronald Reagan. He ran again in 2000 and was elected to the House of Representatives from Indiana’s Second District.
After one term, the district was renamed the Sixth District, and Pence continued to serve as its representative until he was elected governor.
His tenure is notable for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Pence signed the law in March 2015, which was criticized as legalizing discrimination against members of the LGBT community based on religious grounds.
Pence rigorously defended the law through protests and several high profile companies saying they would pull out of planned expansion projects in Indiana. A week after the law was signed, Pence signed new legislation that revised it to make clear discrimination was not permitted.
Pence announced in 2011 he would run for the Indiana governorship, resigning from his leading position in the GOP caucus.
He won his race for governor of Indiana in 2012.
In March 2016, Pence fought unsuccessfully to prevent Syrian refugees from entering Indiana.
The governor is strongly against LGBT persons serving in the military, noting in 2000 that, “Homosexuality is incompatible with military service because the presence of homosexuals in the ranks weakens unit cohesion.”
Pence has advocated for a constitutional same-sex marriage ban, but did not argue for such a rule during his first year as governor.
Born in Columbus, IN, Pence is one of six children.
He served at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at Hanover College as the chapter’s president and graduated in 1981.
Pence graduated from law school in 1986 and practiced law privately until 1991, when he became president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation.
Pence remained here until he began a career in talk radio, and later, politics.
– Newschannel 6
