# Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (b. 1959) is the **48th Vice President of the United States (2017-2021), and the single officeholder whose decision not to overturn the 2020 election — on January 6, 2021, as President of the Senate presiding over the joint session to count electoral votes — stopped the Trump-Eastman plan to claim a second term for Donald Trump**. Former governor of Indiana (2013-2017), former Republican congressman (2001-2013), longtime Christian-right political figure, and a documented member of the Council for National Policy by the 2022 membership leak, Pence is a structurally critical figure in the KB's January 6 arc precisely because he represents the moment when movement-conservative loyalty collided with constitutional process — and process won. Pence matters for the KB for two reasons. First, the **Eastman-Chesebro plan depended on Pence's cooperation** — the theory was that as President of the Senate presiding on January 6, Pence could unilaterally refuse to count certain states' electors, or delay the count while "alternate slates" were considered, thereby preventing Biden's certification. Pence's refusal — publicly stated in a letter released minutes before he gaveled the joint session to order at 1:00 PM on January 6 — broke the operational premise of the plan. Second, Pence is the **archetype of the movement-evangelical officeholder** the Christian right had spent decades cultivating: a self-described "Christian, conservative, Republican, in that order," the figure who Trump chose specifically to reassure the evangelical base in 2016. His eventual break with Trump over January 6 is therefore also a rupture in the movement-evangelical-to-MAGA alignment — though one that most movement evangelicals ultimately chose to repair by siding with Trump. ## Background - Born June 7, 1959, in Columbus, Indiana - BA in history from Hanover College (1981); JD from Indiana University School of Law (1986) - Raised Catholic; converted to evangelical Christianity in college - Ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988 and 1990; conservative talk-radio host in Indiana (1994-1999) - Elected to U.S. House of Representatives (2001-2013); chaired the Republican Study Committee (2005-2007); chaired the House Republican Conference (2009-2011) - Elected Governor of Indiana (2013-2017); signed Religious Freedom Restoration Act (2015) that became a national flashpoint - Named Trump's running mate in July 2016; sworn in as Vice President January 20, 2017 - Left office January 20, 2021 - Ran for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination; suspended campaign October 2023 after low polling - Married Karen Pence since 1985; three children ## The Indiana Years Pence's pre-vice-presidential record is a standard Christian-right conservative portfolio with several notable episodes: ### Religious Freedom Restoration Act (2015) As governor, Pence signed Indiana's RFRA, which critics argued would license businesses to refuse service to LGBT customers. The bill produced a significant corporate backlash (NCAA, major employers, convention cancellations); Pence signed a "fix" amendment within a week. The episode damaged Pence politically in Indiana — polling suggested he might lose re-election in 2016 — which is part of why the vice-presidential nomination arrived at the right moment. ### HIV Outbreak in Scott County (2015) Pence resisted calls to authorize a needle-exchange program during a severe HIV outbreak tied to injection drug use in Scott County, Indiana. The delay was criticized by public-health experts; Pence eventually authorized a temporary exchange after the outbreak had spread. The episode is cited in the KB as an example of ideology-over-evidence public-health decision-making — a pattern that would recur in Pence's later role chairing Trump's COVID-19 task force. ## The Vice Presidency (2017-2021) Pence's role in the first Trump administration combined ceremonial, liaison, and policy functions. Specific responsibilities: - **Evangelical liaison**: Pence was the administration's principal channel to the Christian-right base — delivering keynote speeches at FRC's Values Voter Summit, maintaining relationships with [[James Dobson]], [[Franklin Graham]], and the broader evangelical establishment - **Senate tie-breaker**: Cast a then-record number of tie-breaking votes (13 total) as President of the Senate — including the tie-breaker confirming [[Betsy DeVos]] as Secretary of Education - **Foreign policy delegated tasks**: Handled Venezuela policy through 2019, represented the administration at a number of international settings - **COVID-19 Task Force chair**: Named chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in February 2020 — a role whose record is extensively criticized on both public-health substance and communications grounds ## January 6 and the Eastman Memo The defining episode of Pence's vice presidency arrived in its final weeks. The [[Eastman Memo]] — authored by [[John Eastman]] and circulated in early January 2021 — advanced the theory that Pence, as presiding officer of the joint session, had the constitutional authority to: - Unilaterally reject electors from states where Trump's campaign had alleged irregularities (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada) - Recognize "alternate slates" of Trump electors submitted by Republican state legislators (the [[Fake Electors Scheme]] operation run by [[Kenneth Chesebro]]) - Send the election "back to the states" for further certification or dispute-resolution Pence's counsel, **Greg Jacob**, and outside counsel retired Judge J. Michael Luttig both advised that the theory was legally unsupportable — the Electoral Count Act of 1887 prescribed a ministerial role for the vice president, not a judgmental one — and that Pence's cooperation would be unconstitutional. ### The Pressure Campaign From late December 2020 through January 6 morning, Pence faced sustained pressure from Trump directly, from Eastman at a January 4 Oval Office meeting, and from a public campaign that included Trump's attacks at the January 6 rally itself — "Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us" — and that eventually produced "Hang Mike Pence" chants at the Capitol attack. ### The Letter At approximately 12:58 PM on January 6, Pence released a public letter explaining that he did not have unilateral authority to reject electors and would perform his ministerial role under the Electoral Count Act. The letter quoted Judge Luttig explicitly. Pence then convened the joint session as scheduled. ### The Attack Pence was in the Capitol during the attack. [[United States Secret Service]] moved him to a secure location; contemporaneous [[January 6 Select Committee]] testimony established that he was within roughly 40 feet of rioters at one point. Pence refused Secret Service suggestions to leave the Capitol complex, reportedly telling agents: "I'm not getting in the car." He returned to preside over the resumed joint session at 8:00 PM and completed the certification at approximately 3:40 AM on January 7. ## Post-Vice Presidency Pence's post-presidency has been defined by a difficult position on the right: loyal to the Trump administration's policy record, opposed to the January 6 conduct, unwilling to fully break with the movement he had spent his career serving, equally unwilling to fully re-embrace Trump. - **Memoir**: *So Help Me God* (2022), recounting the administration years including the January 6 episode - **Presidential campaign**: Declared candidacy in June 2023; suspended in October 2023 due to low polling (peaking in low-to-mid single digits) - **Post-2024**: Did not endorse Trump's 2024 campaign and was not endorsed by Trump; openly critical of Trump's post-presidential rhetoric on January 6 prosecutions - **Advancing American Freedom**: Founded the advocacy organization in 2021 as a post-vice-presidency movement vehicle ## Council for National Policy Membership Pence appears in the **2022 CNP membership leak** — the most recent documented comprehensive membership list — placing him inside the CNP coordination ecosystem as a former vice president. The CNP membership is consistent with Pence's longstanding positioning within the Christian-right network but is one of the few documented overlaps between the former vice presidency and CNP membership. ## Connection to the KB Ecosystem - **[[January 6 Capitol Attack]]**: The officeholder whose decision to perform his ministerial role prevented the operational success of the Trump-Eastman plan. - **[[Eastman Memo]]**: The direct target of the legal theory Eastman advanced; Pence's refusal to act on the memo is what broke the plan. - **[[Fake Electors Scheme]]**: The ground operation whose success depended on Pence's recognition of alternate slates; did not occur. - **[[Stop the Steal]]**: The broader operation within which the Pence-pressure campaign was the endgame. - **[[Council for National Policy]]**: Documented member as of the 2022 leak. - **Evangelical-right-to-MAGA hinge**: Pence is the archetype of the movement-evangelical officeholder whose Trump-era trajectory — initial embrace, late rupture over January 6, failed comeback campaign — illustrates the internal strain within the Christian right that Trump-era politics has produced. - **Institutional process survived**: The Pence episode is one of the KB's clearest cases of a single officeholder's decision mattering — the same operation, with a compliant vice president, would have produced a constitutional crisis of a fundamentally different magnitude. ## See Also - [[Council for National Policy]] - [[Eastman Memo]] - [[Fake Electors Scheme]] - [[January 6 Capitol Attack]] - [[John Eastman]] - [[Kenneth Chesebro]] - [[Donald Trump]] - [[Ed Meese]] - [[The Unholy Alliance]]