SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 News) – Vice President Mike Pence has a reputation for being steady and calm perhaps even boring…but considering the President that he serves, that may be a good thing.
“His temperament is very different than the President which is interesting,” Jason Perry, the Director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics said. “He once referred to himself as Rush Limbaugh on decaf.”
The 61-year-old former Representative served as the Governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017 and has led President Trump’s Transition Team and the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
“It’s interesting to watch him be a counterpoint to the President,” Utah republican Party Chairman Derek Brown said. “The President tends to be much of this larger than life figure and Mike Pence, he’s been a former governor so he gets the political dynamics and he’s very smart. He understands the political world but he also is very mellow and very soft-spoken.”
“He is one who has been through the political circles, been through the gauntlet several times and really understands the political process,” Perry said. “He is steady and time-tested and sometimes what you want in your Vice Presidential candidate is that calm presence. You want the boring figure sometimes. You don’t them to try to outstage the President but sometimes you just need someone who goes into a room and calms things down. From the Republican side, that is the role that Mike Pence has played and I think it’s what he’s going to play going forward.”
The evangelical Christian is popular among Utah Republicans, receiving warm welcomes here during a campaign stop in 2016 and a visit last year to meet with business leaders and Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“He’s a man who wears his faith and his beliefs on his sleeve in a sense,” Chairman Brown said. “The people like him here in Utah because his style and his demeanor paints a pretty stark contrast to the President…He’s not as polarizing a figure and yet he’s also very determined and grounded and it’s clear where his principles are.”
“I think people in Utah in particular and in other parts of the country look at him as someone who really softens that ticket,” Perry said. “The person that represents their values, which helps them maybe appreciate the ticket even more….Mike Pence has been a regular visitor here to the state of Utah and I think it’s because he is representing the part of the ticket that Utahns would appeal to most. He talks about his religious values, the more moderate approach that he takes. He has been sent here more often than we have seen a Vice Presidential candidate in some time because I think he appeals more to Utah Republican voters.”
