A Koch guy? Sort of. A Reagan guy. A born again Christian
Vice President Pence has acknowledged meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and discussing US military support. Was he part of Trump’s extortion effort? Here is the Mike Pence who came to the table.
From an Irish and German American Democratic and a Roman Catholic family, he became a born again Christian in college. He was a Reagan Democrat. He went to law school, practiced briefly, and ran for Congress. Had he been elected, he would have been about the age that AOC was when she was elected to Congress. A kid.
After failing to win a Congressional seat in the next round, he was named President of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. Did that make him a Koch guy? Maybe. Donors were anonymous. The only donor I could identify was in connection with the overarching State Policy Network. That was Charles Koch. So…maybe a Koch guy.
He went on to host a right wing radio show. Ten years after his second Congressional loss, Pence ran again and won. Esquire described him as a traditional Republican. The Values Voters saw him as a top candidate for president.
Not right away. He declined a chance to run for the US Senate. He ran for governor of Indiana. Like Reagan. The governorship would be the route to national leadership.
He was elected. He cut taxes and budgets, except for education. He favored early childhood education (not exactly a di Blasio guy, though). No matter how pro-business he was, he could not keep businesses from closing or moving out of the country. He could support charter schools and vouchers. He could allow guns in schools, prevent needle exchanges, allow religious objections to gays, and restrict abortions. He was tapped by Trump as his vice presidential candidate while he was preparing to run for reelection to a second term, a race he was not certain to win.
Most of all, he is a guy who had a religious conversion in college.