When Indiana Gov. Mike Pence announced Thursday that he’s running for reelection, he emphasized to his audience of party faithful that Hoosiers will not “tolerate discrimination against anyone.”
Neither his announcement nor his comment were unexpected. It’s a given that a first-term governor, especially a Republican in this solidly red state, will seek a second term. And the comment? It was an attempt at patching up his image after the debacle of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The bill that Pence signed into law was interpreted widely as allowing business people to refuse service to individuals based the business person’s religious belief — that is, if a gay couple were to ask a baker to make their wedding cake, the baker could turn them down based on his belief that homosexuality was wrong in the eyes of God. A firestorm of protest, including howls of displeasure with the law from the business community that the law allowed discrimination against the gay community, erupted after the signing, almost engulfing the administration.
Perhaps worse for Pence was that he and his state became the butt of jokes on the late-night talk shows. What could be more trouble for a politician than being made to look ridiculous to a national audience? Following the uproar and at Pence’s urging, the Legislature sent a revised and more acceptable bill to replace the first one. But by then, the damage had been done.
Pence had made a giant miscalculation of the mood of Hoosiers and is suffering the consequences. Another apparent miscalculation was his decision to fight a pitched battle with Democratic state school superintendent Glenda Ritz, who along with other prominent Democrats, has announced she’s seeking the Democratic nomination for the job Pence now holds. At least one poll shows Pence in a dead heat with whichever Democrat wins the nomination.
Ritz, after all, won her current job by beating Republican incumbent state schools boss Tony Bennett, a strongly conservative advocate of school choice — that is, vouchers and charter schools — and widely seen as an enemy of the public schools. Pence, perhaps not as bombastic as Bennett could be, remains a strong advocate of school choice.
Why does Pence not see the changing currents that seem now to threaten to sweep him away? The official picture of the signing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act tells a lot of the story. First, the picture was taken at a private ceremony in front of a small, invited group rather than in public, probably to avoid protestors. And the group itself was made up from Indiana’s pantheon of the right, particularly the religious right.
These were his most ardent supporters. They want vouchers. They are dismayed that so many of us don’t see the immorality they see in homosexuality or abortion. They are the Pence bloc. A champion of the religious right when in Congress, Gov. Pence has not shied away from the positions that made him popular then.
The trouble for the governor can be seen in the amazingly fast change of mind of the American people, including Hoosiers, on such issues as same-sex marriage. And not only teachers’ unions support public schools. Pence has listened too much to his core to the exclusion of other important messages from voters.