WASHINGTON, D.C. — Donald Trump just announced on his Twitter page that he has chosen Governor Mike Pence as his vice presidential running mate.
I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate. News conference tomorrow at 11:00 A.M.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2016
Pence, 57, was born in Columbus, Indiana, a town about 40 miles south of Indianapolis, where his father ran a chain of gas stations.
After working as an admissions counselor at his alma mater, Hanover College, a liberal arts school in Madison, Indiana, and earning a law degree, Pence campaigned for Congress in 1988 and 1990 — but lost to Democratic incumbent Rep. Phil Sharp. Those campaigns featured bitter attack ads, including one from Pence’s campaign, featuring a man clad in Arab garb thanking Sharp for America’s dependence on foreign oil.
He began rehabilitating his political career with a short essay called “Confessions of a Negative Campaigner.”
In it, he argued that “your First Amendment rights end at the tip of your opponent’s nose.”
“A campaign ought to be about the advancement of issues whose success or failure is more significant than that of the candidate,” Pence wrote. “Whether on the left or the right, candidates ought to leave a legacy — a foundation of arguments — in favor of policies upon which their successors can build. William Buckley carries with him a purposeful malapropism. ‘Don’t just do something,’ it says, ‘stand there.'”
In 1991, Pence became the president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, and in 1993 began his own syndicated radio show based in Rushville, Indiana — performing as a self-described Rush Limbaugh on decaf.
