In the simple act of signing his name, Gov. Mike Pence may have altered his entire political career.
Before March 26, Indiana’s chief executive was known as a congressman who had spent more than a decade in office, the 50th governor of the Hoosier state, and a Republican hopeful in the 2016 presidential election.
After signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law last week, Pence became a household name across the nation as the governor who sanctioned discrimination.
“This last week has been nothing less than a political debacle,” said Brian Howey, publisher of Howey Politics Indiana. “Is it a political death knell for him? I’m not sure. I think it’s a little too early to tell.”
The state continues to grapple with RFRA backlash on a local and national level, even after the Legislature took additional measures Thursday to clarify that the law will not allow businesses to refuse services to a member of the public based on race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or U.S. military service. And Pence, who has become the face of the law that launched dozens of boycotts, could stand to lose the most in terms of reputation.
“He acknowledged there is a perception problem, and that’s where he’s getting in trouble,” Howey said.
Pence, however, isn’t the first Indiana governor to face harsh criticism close to a presidential election.
In 2010, former Gov. Mitch Daniels, seen as a frontrunner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, was the subject of a profile in the Weekly Standard in which he made a statement that followed him for the rest of his term in office.
Daniels’ idea that the president who would take office in 2013 would need to back off from social issues to focus on balancing the nation’s budget was questioned by his supporters and chastised by fellow GOP-nominee hopefuls. He reiterated his beliefs in different words in a speech at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference, and two months later announced that he would not run for president in the election that gave President Barack Obama a second term.