Who is Mike Pence? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, wife, family, tribe, achievements, and relationship with Edward Joseph Cawley, Nancy Cawley Pence, Donald Trump, and the early life and education of an American attorney, talk show host and Republican politician.
Mike Pence is an American attorney, talk show host and a Republican politician.
He served as President Donald Trump’s 48th vice president from 2017 until 2021.
He also served as Indiana’s governor from 2013 to 2017 and before that from 2001 to 2013as a representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Early Life and Education
Mike Pence also known as Michael Richard Pence was born on June 7, 1959, in Columbus, Indiana. He is the third born among six children.
He was born to Edward Joseph Cawley who served in the Korean War and Nancy Cawley Pence who was an elementary school teacher.
Richard Michael Cawley, an immigrant from Tubbercurry, Ireland who worked as a bus driver in Chicago, was Mike’s paternal grandfather.
Mike Pence was raised loving President John F. Kennedy and even started collecting JFK memorabilia as a young child.
His parents were Irish Catholic Democrats.
Mike Pence finished high school at Columbus North High School in 1977.
He then graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in History from Hanover College in 1981 and a law degree from Indiana University in 1986.
Mike Pence was raised Catholic and Democratic like his parents, but while attending Hanover College, he underwent a spiritual conversion and changed his political allegiance to become a fundamentalist conservative Christian Republican.
At an evangelical church session in 1984, Pence got to know divorced elementary school teacher Karen Sue Batten Whitaker. They have since been united in marriage from June 8th, 1985. Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey are their three children.
Career and Professional Work Experience
Prior to entering politics, Mike Pence was a practising attorney.
He also headed the conservative think tank Indiana Policy Review Foundation from 1991 to 1993.
“The Mike Pence Show,” a daily conservative talk radio program he hosted from 1992 to 1999, was syndicated across the state in 1994.
In Indianapolis, from 1995 to 1999, Pence served as the host of a Sunday morning political TV program.
He made unsuccessful bids for the US Congress in 1988 and 1990. He, however, ran for the position a third time in 2000 when the Republican serving Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District announced his retirement.
Congressional Election and Career
Mike Pence competed in a six-way primary against several seasoned politicians, including state representative Jeff Linder, for the seat.
Following his victory, Pence ran against the Democratic primary winner Robert Rock, a populist independent who is the son of a former lieutenant governor of Indiana, and former Republican state senator Bill Frazier.
He was elected with 51% of the vote following a bruising campaign.
Mike Pence was one of the most vocal conservatives in the House when he first entered politics. He declined to back a Republican-backed bankruptcy law because it included an abortion provision he disagreed with.
Additionally, he joined a lawsuit filed by Senate Republicans contesting the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law.
The district was renumbered as the 6th in the same year that Pence gained reelection. Pence’s election to lead the Republican Study Committee in 2005 was proof of his expanding influence.
Vice Presidency
Mike Pence pondered running for president again in 2016 but supported Texas Senator Ted Cruz instead for the GOP candidacy.
He characterized then-candidate Donald Trump’s proposal in December 2015 for a temporary ban on visitors from nations with a majority of Muslims as “offensive and unconstitutional.” At the same time, however, Pence praised Trump’s stance on jobs.
Trump named Pence his running mate in the presidential election in July 2016. Pence accepted and this caused him to halt his gubernatorial campaign.
Mike Pence was elected vice president on November 8, 2016, and was sworn in alongside President Donald Trump on January 20, 2017.
On January 27, 2017, Pence spoke at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., becoming the first vice president and, at the time, the highest-ranking American official to ever do so, until President Trump did so in 2020.
In his dual constitutional roles as vice president and president of the US Senate, Pence first broke a 50-50 tie to confirm Betsy DeVos as secretary of education on February 7, 2017, and then again on March 30 to advance a bill defunding Planned Parenthood, which President Trump signed on April 17.
In total, Pence cast 13 tie-breaking votes.
Mike Pence registered the political action group (PAC) Great America group with the Federal Election Commission in May 2017.
Pence made history by becoming the first vice president to launch a political action committee (PAC) while still in office.
Running for President 2024
The New York Times reported in May 2022 that Pence was mulling a presidential bid whether or not Trump decided to seek again.
Pence started giving high-profile speeches in early-nomination states after leaving office in which he dissociated himself from Trump’s ongoing efforts to call into question the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.
In the Georgia race for governor, Pence supported incumbent governor Brian Kemp over Trump’s choice, former senator David Perdue, in what was referred to as a “proxy battle” between Pence and Trump.
Kemp, Pence’s choice, won the nomination with ease. Pence supported land developer Karrin Taylor Robson in the 2022 Arizona governor primary while Trump supported TV news reporter Kari Lake, who won the nomination.
Controversies
In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the coast of Louisiana, Republicans were accused of being callous and unwilling to help with the clean-up.
“We must not let Katrina break the bank,” Pence said as he convened a press conference to announce that the Republican-led Congress would cut $24 billion from spending.
Pence caused controversy in 2006 when he partnered with Democrats to resolve an immigration impasse. He was criticized by conservatives after his bill ultimately failed.
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