Townhall Magazine September 2013 Cover Story

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38 TOWNHALL September 2013

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$-!-.#Indiana Gov. Mike Pence may be the GOPs bestchance at the White House in 2016, but for now,

his priorities are closer to home.

BY S.E. CUPP

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September 2013 TOWNHALL39

(AP/Michael Conro)

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Roads are big business in Indiana, and always have been. A

decade after the founding of the capitol city of Indianapolis,

the old east-west National Road, now U.S. Route 40, cut its

way through the town, connecting Atlantic City, N.J., to the

uncharted Wild West. Meridian Street, which runs north

through the middle of the city, splits the state in two and

originally ran all the way from Michigan to Alabama. The citysnickname is the Circle City for the giant circle where Meridian

and Market Streets converge.

Fittingly, the state motto is the Crossroads of America.

Automobile companies like Duesenberg and Stutz once made

Indianapolis a rival of Detroit, and now thousands of IndyCar

fans gather at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway every year for

the Indy 500 to celebrate and experience that rich history.

Its this pride in a state which connected the coasts of a vast

country that motivates Republican Gov. Mike Pence today. He

grew up in rural Columbus, where his Irish-Catholic family set

out to get a piece of the American dream. Roads weave their

way through that story as well. His father owned a string of gas

stations. His grandfather was a bus driver in Chicago.Pences road to politics, meanwhile, was neither straight nor

smooth. He lost congressional elections in 1988 and 1990.

But now, after serving 12 years in the U.S. House of

Representatives and being elected the states 50th governor

in 2012, the road many are talking about leads to the White

House. Is Pence the GOPs best chance at derailing Hillary

Clintons course in 2016? He might just be.

A PROMISING PICTURE

Pence is soft-spoken, deliberate and, some might even say,

reserved. But he beams with pride as he shows me around his

office, an ornate,

Italian Renais-

s a n c e - i n s p i r e d

chamber lined

with Indiana Oak.

He chose the por-

traits hanging onthe paneled walls

himselfthree In-

diana governors,

William Henry

Harrison, Jona-

than Jennings and

Oliver P. Morton;

Herman Hudson,

who founded the

African-American studies department at Indiana University;

and Madame C.J. Walker, the first self-made woman million-

aire in America. Theres also a painting that he was told was

displayed at President Lincolns funeral.I love this kind of stuff, he tells me excitedly.

Theres also a red telephone on his desk that his wife, Karen,

gave him one Christmas. Only she has the number.

And it occasionally rings, he says sheepishly. And every

time it does, I stand.

Theres a model IndyCar and family photos. And there are

the requisite pictures of Pence with other presidentsboth

Obama and George W. Bush. When we come to a photograph

of the governor with Ronald Reagan, theres a pause.

He tells me he was a 29-year-old candidate for Congress

when he was invited to meet the president in the Blue Room.

Mike Pence leaves the stage with his w ife Karen afer being sworn in as Indianas 50th governorearlier this year. (AP /Michael Conroy)

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When I asked how nervous he was, he responded, Very, and

then told me the story:He said to me, Mike, hows the campaign going? And I said,

Well, its going fine. But Ive got something Id like to say to

you. And he said, Well, go right ahead. And I said, Id just like

to thank you for everything youve done for this country and

everything youve done to inspire my generation of Americans

to believe in this country again. And for the rest of my life I

will always believe that, in that moment, the 40th president of

the United States of America blushed, like hed never heard it

before.

If Pence admires Reagans humility, he equally admires his

leadership, putting people before politics and even party

Pence actually grew up idolizing John F. Kennedy and serving

as the Democratic youth party coordinator in BartholomewCounty. (It hasnt hurt his career, he jokes.)

But some things you just grow out of. He found conservatism

eventually, saying, I started to think about the ideals that

I cherished, and I was drawn to the Republican Party,

predominately by the voice and example and the leadership of

Ronald Reagan.

He also found a new church, deciding to attend Evangelical

churches with his family. He disregards the polls that suggest

religion in America is on the decline: Faith continues to be

enormously important here in Indiana and, I believe, around

the country. People express it in different ways. But I still

Thengubernatorial candidate Mike Pence speaks t o supporters fr om the bed of his red pickup truck during a rally at a lumber yard in Lafayette, Ind.,in 2012. (AP/Michael Conroy)

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believe in my heart that an overwhelming majority of American

people still cherish their faith in God and see it as important in

their life as I do.

As Pence went about forging his political career, he

experimented with different forums, heading the Indiana

Policy Review Foundation, a conservative think tank, and later

starring in a local radio show, The Mike Pence Show, which he

described as Rush Limbaugh on decaf.

When he eventually won the 2nd Congressional District

election in 2000 (and five more times after that, during which

the district morphed into the 6th Congressional) he took the

kind of tough stances on fiscal and social issues that earned

himHuman Events Man of the Year moniker in 2005 for his

principles of lower taxes, limited government, a strong defense

and a fierce dedication to moral authority.

He voted to ban federal health coverage that included

abortion funding in 2011 and sponsored a bill to prohibit

federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

He also took a controversial stand to cut spending in the

wake of Hurricane Katrina. I asked him to reflect on that time

through the lens of recent disaster spending fights in Congress

over Hurricane Sandy.

At the time of [Katrina], I was serving in a leadership role

among House conservatives, Pence said. And every single one

of us was supportive of relief effortsme includedbut we

just thought that fiscal respon-

sibility requires decisions about

priorities. And I was pleased by

the fact that, in the course of that

debate, we passed what was the

last significant deficit reduction

act that was signed into law. We

saved tens of billions of dollars

as a way of offsetting the cost of

those unexpected expenses. AndI think thats what the American

people expect from people in

public life. They expect men and

women who have responsibilities

to be willing to make the choices

and exercise priorities in a discerning way even while we meet

the critical and vital and oftentimes the emergency needs that

occur in our states and in our communities.

I also asked him to reflect on the recent shooting in New-

town, Conn., and what he thinks the gun control conversation

is missing.

I believe that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens

makes communities more safe, not less safe, Pence said. Butwe recognize the fact that there have been tragedies in this

country. One would be too many, but weve had many more

than one. And theyve torn at the heart of the American people.

The American people have big hearts, especially when it

comes to our kids. But I think its possible to discharge our

responsibilities to our families and our communities and also

protect our rights at the same time.

THE OPTIMISTIC COMMUNICATOR

In the wake of President Obamas re-election and the mini-

awakening Republicans have been experiencing since, many

have suggested that one of the problems the GOP faced in 2012

was a lack of positive messaging and clear alternatives to the

Democrats policies. For four years, Republicans ran an anti-

Obama campaign instead of conditioning environments all

over the country to embrace conservative ideas.

Pence is reluctant to pile on in the autopsy efforts, but he

does offer some analysis along those lines.

Im someone who really believes that one of the reasons for

our success in a difficult election year here in Indiana was we

spent all the resources in our campaign articulating a positive

vision for an even better Indiana. We talked about the progress

Indiana made in the last eight years, becoming the fiscal envy

of the country, advancing economic and educational reforms.

But we spoke aspirationally. We said we want to go to the next

level. We want Indiana to be known everywhere as the state

that works, and we laid out a roadmap for how we would do

that. We spent all of our time in our campaign not talking about

what was wrong with our opponents ideas but what was right

about our ideas.

Conservatives in the wake of 2012 have also taken up

the project of judging each other on their conservative-

ness, wondering aloud if someone like Chris Christie is too

moderate and Ted Cruz is too extreme. I asked Pence if

thats been a productive or valuable exercise for a party that is

supposed to be a big tent.

Well, Im a conservative, but

Im not in a bad mood about

it, Pence said. I understand

politics is about addition and

not subtraction. And I really

do believe that any success that

Ive enjoyed in public life and in

being awarded the opportunity

to serve in this position has been

a testament hopefully to a lot ofhard work on our part. But more

importantly its been a testament

to the power of the ideas that

were advancing: the principles

of economic freedom, of equality

of opportunity in education, of common sense and common

values and expressing those in a way that demonstrates respect

for all concerned.

And when it comes to the ways Republicans need to

communicate their ideas, Pence naturally turns back to

Reagan.

I was drawn to the Republican Party because of the voice

and ideals of Ronald Reagan, and what I heard in him wasan uncanny ability to articulate the principles of limited

government, a strong defense, a respect for American

traditions and values. But what I also heard in Ronald Reagan

was a gentleness and a respect for every American and a deep

love for this country. And I truly believe that as I go forward in

my career, Ill always seek to manifest those same aspirational

qualities, because this is a very difficult time in the life of

our country. People are really looking for answers more than

arguments, and the more we can articulate the ideals and the

policies that naturally proceed out of them, the more I think

were going to be given opportunities at every level ahead.

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Opportunities like the White House? Pence tells me he hasnt

spent a single second thinking about any other job. But others

have been happy to.

In 2010, Pence was the subject of a presidential draft

movement, and, at the Values Voters Summit that year, he won

the presidential straw poll. National Reviews Katrina Trinko

and Erick Erickson of Red State were among the conservativevoices pushing Pence to run, but in the end he declined so he

could run for the governors office following Mitch Daniels

retirement.

Now, as the focus turns to Republican newsmakers like

Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie, the attention on

Pence may have waned, but it will no doubt resurrect as 2016

draws near.

Until then, while some hope that hell make a run for the

White House, he is focused squarely on Indiana and his

mission to bring jobs back to the state. And, though the states

unemployment rate is still above the national average, it dropped

to 8.3 percent in May while the national average ticked up

.1 percent.But in Indiana, all roads lead back to, well, more roads. In May

of this year, Pence signed a $30 billion, two-year budget into law

that invests more than $600 million in roads and infrastructure,

all while passing on to Hoosiers a $600 million tax cut, a repeal

of the state inheritance tax and business tax reductions.

Its business-friendly overtures like tax breaks and

deregulation that have lured companies like Geico, Toyota,

Angies List and Subaru to invest and expand in Indiana.

On day one of my administration, I signed an executive

order that established a moratorium on any new regulation in

the state of Indiana until we did a full-scale look back at all of

Indianas business regulations, he says. I simply think that less

taxes and less regulation means more jobs.

Indiana was also the first state in the industrial Midwest to

pass right-to-work legislation.

Since we became a right-to-work state, Pence says, literally

dozens of companies have initiated contact or made decisions

to come to Indiana, and we welcome that.By Indiana becoming a right-to-work state, by our neighbors

to the north becoming a right-to-work state, I think we are

beginning to model the kind of policies and practices that can

really relight the pilot light of the industrial Midwest, which I

believe is of incalculable importance.

ROAD TO THE FUTURE

Ronald Reagan might have grown up in Illinois, but Hoosiers

like Mike Pence are very proud of their next-door neighbor.

And how do Hoosiers show their affection? Theyve named

a road after him, of course. The Ronald Reagan Parkway has

been a giant, 25-year undertaking and will one day l ink three

interstates. Its not complete yet, but a little over a month afterPence won the governorship, a major section of that Parkway

was completed and opened to traffic in ceremony, reported

local NBC affiliate WTHR.com.

Meanwhile, whether Pences own road keeps him in Indiana

for another term or brings him back to Washington is anyones

guess. But plenty will be pulling for the latter.

S.E. Cupp is author of Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Medias

Attack on Christianity. She has a weekly column in the New

York Daily News and was recently announced as a host for CNNs

Crossfire.

S.E. Cupp chats with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on her visit to Indianapolis. (Photo cour tesy of the Indi ana governor s oce)

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