OXON HILL, Md. — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence did not travel to the Conservative Political Action Conference to talk about the Hoosier state.
He was testing out a national message, with eyes potentially trained on a higher office.
“Some say the next [presidential] nominee in our party should be a governor, and I’m certainly sympathetic to that view,” Pence said, to laughs.
“But all kidding aside, what I can tell you that I’m looking for is not someone who says, ‘Send me to Washington, D.C., and I’ll run our nation’s capital the way I ran our state capital,'” he added. “I’m listening for someone to say, ‘Send me to Washington, D.C., and I’ll make it more possible for the next person running my state to run it with more freedom and more flexibility.’ ”
Pence, a former member of Congress, is often overlooked as a potential Republican candidate for president, in part because he hasn’t been acting like one. Unlike most of the other would-be contenders, Pence has not launched a political committee outside of Indiana, has not made appearances in key primary states, and has not begun to snatch up the top political talent required of a presidential campaign.
Part of the calculus for Pence is weighing whether to run for president, which he has not ruled out, or run for re-election to a second term as governor in 2016. Indiana law prohibits a candidate appearing twice on the same ballot, although the state legislature might change that.
But if Pence has not yet begun to act like a presidential candidate, he sounded like one Friday as the keynote speaker for the Reagan Dinner, the catbird seat of CPAC speaking slots. With soaring rhetoric, Pence touched on national and international themes ranging from the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, to energy independence, to President Obama’s executive action on immigration.
Citing Ronald Reagan’s famous “A Time For Choosing” speech, Pence said “we are come to another time of choosing.”
“You either choose to view America as the shining city upon a hill that inspires the best in all mankind, or you don’t,” Pence said. “You either want America to stand by her friends and stand up to her enemies, or you don’t. You either are for limiting the power of the federal government, or you’re not. You’re either for protecting the unborn and the religious liberty of everyone American, or you aren’t.”
“The American people have made their choice,” Pence added, “and we’re on the verge of a great American comeback.”
In the spirit of a stump speech, Pence also began to tell his own story, beginning with his grandfather, who immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland, and his father, who “built a gas station business in Indiana.” Pence noted his own background as a Democrat, early on, and often invoked his experience as a member of Congress, where he got his start in national politics.
“I like to say, if I had 12 years left to live, I’d like to live them as a member of Congress,” Pence said, “because that was the longest 12 years of my life.”
When Pence did mention Indiana, it was to hold up his record as governor there as a national example, a strategy that has been used by other Republican governors running for president, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
“In Indiana, we balance budgets and have a AAA bond rating,” Pence said. “That’s a lot better than Washington, D.C.”
In a hint of strategy to come, Pence also offered a preview of the tone he might take as a presidential candidate, if he is to wage a campaign.
Much like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who said he would only run for president if he could do so “with joy in my heart,” Pence suggested his candidacy would be grounded in a positive message.
“We need to be cheerful partisans. Happy warriors,” Pence said. “Lord knows we need a little optimism these days.”
The dinner crowd rewarded Pence with a standing ovation, and afterward stuck around to mingle onstage with the governor.
Among those CPAC attendees chatting up Pence up were Rick Santorum, who spoke earlier at CPAC, and his family. They asked for a photo with Pence, and he obliged.
