When Gov. Mike Pence formally accepted Donald Trump’s invitation to join him on the GOP ticket as the vice presidential pick, here’s what stood out: When Pence took the podium in New York, he immediately spoke of his family and his faith.
Pence, 57, has many values in common with Trump, including a strong and connected family. “He’s got an incredible family,” Trump himself said in his introduction of Pence at a press conference Saturday. “Karen is amazing. Incredible family.”
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When Pence spoke, he said, “I’m grateful to God for His amazing grace. Grateful to my wonderful wife, Karen, and our three incredible kids, Michael, Charlotte and Audrey.”
He then said that he has recently wondered, “Who am I, oh Lord, and who is my family that you have brought us this far?”
Pence was raised in an Irish-Catholic family in Columbus, Indiana. His parents didn’t talk politics over the dinner table — his dad was an oil distributor who ran a number of gas stations. His grandfather was an immigrant from Ireland, according to Indy Star.com.
“My grandfather immigrated to this country and in many ways I had a front-row seat to the American dream,” Pence said in his remarks Saturday.
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Church was the hub of Pence’s family as he grew up. His parents, Edward and Nancy Jane Pence, had their six children dress for Mass, including suits for Mike and his three brothers — who also served as altar boys, Heavy.com and others reported.
Pence met his future wife, Karen, at a church in Indianapolis after he graduated from Hanover College in Indiana. He later became a born-again Christian. Both he and his wife are deeply religious.
“The most important thing in my life is that 31 years ago I married the girl of my dreams, Karen Pence, who will make a great second lady of the United States of America,” Pence said, smiling and looking over his left shoulder at her.
“I cannot accept a humanity that does not possess any kind of curiosity about God,” said Charlotte Pence, the middle child.
Karen Pence’s official biography says she earned a B.S. and M.S. in elementary education from Indiana’s Butler University. She was a school teacher for 31 years, and has always been an active and visible partner with Pence on the campaign trail. She is also a painter who specializes in watercolors of homes and historic buildings, as her official Indiana first lady bio notes.
The Pence marriage is reportedly a strong one. “I would say that my Christian faith and my relationship with Karen are the two most dominant influences in my life today,” Pence told IndyStar.com in 2012.
The Pences are proud of their three children. “While this office is an extraordinary one of to which to aspire, the highest role I will ever play is D-A-D and I’m a proud father of a college student, a graduate turned writer, and a U.S. Marine,” Pence said on Saturday spelling out his pride.
Michael Pence, 24, is the oldest Pence child. He told Indiana television station WHTR in 2012 of his childhood, “Frankly, we’ve had a pretty normal childhood. We’ve seen some cool things in D.C. and now Indiana, but it’s been pretty normal until the last six months.” (He was referring back then to his father’s election as governor of the Hoosier State, and how they moved back home at that time.)
This son, Mike Pence, attended Purdue University in Indiana and graduated from basic training for the Marines in 2015. His parents flew into Quantico to attend the graduation ceremony where he was commissioned a second lieutenant, according to Heavy.com.
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Charlotte Pence, 22, is the oldest daughter and is working in the film industry after studying digital cinema and English at DePaul University. She graduated this year. She was a director of the documentary “For the Records,” which covers the challenges of mental illness, and was also associate producer and co-writer of “Fleeced,” a documentary that won nine regional Emmy awards, according to Heavy.com.
Charlotte Pence is also a writer, and published a column on Thought Catalog, a website, in 2014 entitled, “Believing in God and Other 21st Century Burdens.” In it, she wrote, “I cannot accept a humanity that does not possess any kind of curiosity about God, because with curiosity, then at least we were getting somewhere.”
Audrey Pence, 21, is Gov. Pence’s youngest daughter and a self-declared “social liberal.” She attends Hanover College, her dad’s alma mater. She is also a gun enthusiast and shooting companion of her father on the campaign trail. Photos on Pence’s Facebook page show Audrey Pence at a shooting event with him. “We went four for four on our first tries!” reads the caption.
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Her father doesn’t have a problem with her differing political views, Audrey Pence told WTHR. “Probably the person I get the most respect from is my dad on that … He tells me so many times, ‘I am proud of you for having your own opinions and looking into things,’” she told the station.
Gov. Pence is a vocal and prominent advocate of traditional family life. Pence has “long fought fiercely for religious rights, pro-life legislation and to define marriage as between a man and a woman,” according to IndyStar.com.
Pence traces his strong convictions back to two sources: the Constitution and the Bible.
“I started to identify with that kind of common-sense conservatism of Ronald Reagan,” Pence said in 2012. And of his faith, in 2009 at the Value Voters Summit, the newly-minted vice presidential candidate said, “As I think about the past five decades of my life, nothing can compare to the inexpressible joy I felt on a night in April 1998, when I gave my life to Jesus Christ.”
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