Mike Pence

 Michael Richard Pence (born June 7 1959) is an American politician who served as the 48th vice-president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under the presidency of President Donald Trump. He is a member of the Republican Party and was previously the 50th governor of Indiana between 2013 and 2017. Pence was also an active member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 until 2013.Pence was born and was raised in Columbus, Indiana, and is the younger brother of U.S. Representative Greg Pence. After graduation from Hanover College, he earned an attorney's degree from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. After that, he began private practice. He lost two bids to become a congressman in 1988 and in 1990. After his election, he was appointed to the U.S. House of Representatives in the year 2000. From 1994 until 1999, he was a conservative radio and television host. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000. He represented the 2nd district of Indiana from 2001 to 2003 and the 6th district in Indiana from 2003 until 2013. From 2005 until 2007, he chaired , and was chairman of the Republican Study Committee as well as the House Republican Conference, the third-highest rank in the House Republican leadership. Pence declared himself a "principled conservative" and supporter of the Tea Party movement, saying he was "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in this order.Pence has been successful in his quest for the Republican nomination for the 2012 Indiana governorship election after term-limited Mitch Daniels retired. He defeated former Indiana House speaker John R. Gregg in the most close to a gubernatorial race in 50 years. Upon becoming governor in January of 2013, Pence initiated the largest tax cut in Indiana's history . He also pushed for more funding for private education initiatives. Pence signed several legislation to restrict abortions. One of these laws prohibited abortions if the reason was the fetus’s race, gender or disability. Pence also signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The legislation was met with strong opposition from business leaders, moderates in his party and LGBT advocates. Pence was forced to amend the RFRA to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and other criteria. This resulted in his being removed from his gubernatorial reelection campaign. He was elected vice president of the United States on January 20 in 2017. In his role as vice president, Pence chaired the National Space Council since it was established in June 2017. In February 2020, Pence was appointed chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which was established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that struck the United States Pence and Trump lost their bid for re-election in the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris however, the Trump campaign refused to concede, made false allegations of fraud in the election and filed more than 86 unsuccessful lawsuits in multiple states. Despite Trump's request to overturn elections and his attack at the U.S. Capitol during the counting of the Electoral College votes, Pence, in his position as president of the Senate, certified the Biden-Harris ticket as the winner of the election. Pence has distanced himself from Trump by assisting candidates in several Republican primary elections that are against Trump's presidential candidate.