Who's Mike Pence and Why Would Trump Pick Him? Indiana governor and ex-House GOP leader has conservative support — with one exception
Sources confirmed Thursday that Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is Donald Trump's vice presidential pick. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Mike Pence appears to
check virtually all the boxes that Donald Trump signaled he’d put on his vice presidential search form:
He has a credible record of executive accomplishment, pushing to enactment the largest tax cuts in Indiana history and an elimination of the state’s estate tax during his term as governor.
[
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Before that, he had a diverse and lengthy experience as a congressional playmaker over six terms in the House, having headed the caucus of the most conservative members and also holding the No. 3 position in the Republican leadership.
His rhetoric has a punchiness that may fairly be labeled “attack dog” in style, but he also prefers the sort of messaging discipline and cool-headed tone of voice– “Rush Limbaugh on decaf,” in his own words – that Trump
hyperkinetically eschews.
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He counterbalances Trump’s weaknesses in other ways. From his time on the Hill and on the executive committee of the Republican Governors Association, he is plugged in to many of the wealthy GOP donors, Main Street advocates and Wall Street lobbyists with whom the presumptive nominee has rocky relations.
He knows about international affairs from his time on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where supporters of Israel view him as an unambiguously reliable
ally cuckservative.