It looks like Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is going to be Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick.
Or is he? Reports are conflicted. Roll Call and CNN say Pence is the guy. Fox News says Pence is planning to drop out of his re-election for governor (an indication he was picked for vice president). Still others in the Trump camp are saying there has been no final decision.
This could all be theater because Trump likes to be the one to break the news, or at least not have it be broken so long before he gets to announce. News outlets only learned of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s endorsement of Trump minutes before Trump took the stage with the announcement. Now, suddenly, news outlets are reporting the VP pick a full day before Trump was set to announce.
But let’s assume Pence is the pick. (I go into all the reasons why I’m pretty ¯_(ツ)_/¯ about Pence here). He would have had to drop out of the gubernatorial race since Indiana law doesn’t allow a candidate to run for two offices simultaneously. So, who could replace him on the Republican ticket to run against Democrat John Gregg?
Mitch Daniels
Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has said he wouldn’t run for governor if Pence is the VP pick, but that could change if Pence actually were the VP pick. It’s one thing to say no to a hypothetical, it’s another to say no to an actual offer.
I hope Daniels doesn’t run, but for selfish reasons. Daniels is incredibly committed to free speech. He’s the current president of Purdue University, and a defender of free speech is rare on college campuses these days. Those of us fighting for the First Amendment need Daniels to keep doing what he does.
But Indiana could need him, too.
Brian Bosma
The most likely replacement right now looks to be Brian Bosma, the Indiana House Speaker. Bosma has served in the Indiana House of Representatives since 1986. He was the floor leader between 1994 and 1999, Republican leader in 2000 and 2002, and was elected House speaker in 2004 after Republicans took back the House. He was re-elected House speaker in 2010 after Republicans again regained control (they lost control in 2006).
Because most states don’t let politicians make a living off of their positions, Bosma is also a practicing attorney, and the Founding Director of Bosma Industries for the Blind, which helps employ the visually impaired.
He’s also a staunch advocate for school choice and helped make Indiana a “Right to Work” state. He’s also been involved in multiple tax cuts, including the largest tax cut in state history, which passed in 2013.
Rep. Todd Rokita
Rokita has apparently expressed interest in running for governor. He doesn’t have that high of a profile in the U.S. House, but that matters little in local politics. Ask anyone about Congress, and they’ll say “they all suck,” but ask the same person about their own representative, and they’ll usually say, “oh, he’s great.”
Rokita isn’t the most conservative member of the House — or even the most conservative member of Indiana representatives — according to Heritage Action. But he is a U.S. congressman, and is the vice-chairman of the powerful Budget Committee.
He also helped implement Indiana’s voter ID law, which he defended before the U.S. Supreme Court. He, like Bosma, is big on education, and co-authored the Every Student Succeeds Act, which eventually replaced No Child Left Behind.
He’s currently running for re-election, so he’d have to withdraw if he chose to run for governor.
Rep. Susan Brooks
Brooks, like Rokita, doesn’t have the most conservative track record (she scores just 50 percent on Heritage Action’s score card), but she is a national politician, and the only woman floated as a potential replacement.
She served on the select committee that helped investigate the events of Sept. 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. She also sits on the House Ethics Committee.
An attorney by trade, Brooks was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. She was also once the Deputy Mayor of Indianapolis.
She’s currently running for re-election, so he’d have to withdraw if he chose to run for governor.
Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb
Holcomb, the lieutenant governor and Pence’s running mate, is also a potential replacement for Pence. He already has executive experience, though he wasn’t elected along with Pence to the governor’s office. Holcomb was nominated to fill the open position after Sue Ellspermann resigned earlier this year to become the next president of Ivy Tech Community College.
Still, Holcomb is the current lieutenant governor, and was an adviser to former governor Mitch Daniels. In 2010, he became the chairman of the Indian Republican Party, but resigned three years later when he was tapped to become Sen. Dan Coats’ chief of staff. Holcomb planned to run to replace Coats, but instead was nominated by Pence to be his replacement lieutenant governor.
Jim Banks
Okay, Banks is kind of an out-of-right-field suggestion, but some Hoosier insiders are floating his name as at least a desired candidate. He has solid conservative credentials, served in Afghanistan and is a member of the Indiana Senate.
He supported right-to-work legislation in Indiana and was selected as one of the Conservative Political Action Conference’s Top 10 Conservatives Under 40 in 2014, at age 36. So he’s young, he’s a family man, he’s former military and a rising conservative. He’s currently running for the U.S. House to replace outgoing Congressman Marlin Stutzman, so he’d have to withdraw from that race if he decided to run for governor.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
