INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Vice President-elect Mike Pence said Monday that he and those in his administration will keep working hard through the end of his term and before he moves to Washington to be vice president.
The Republican governor told reporters at the Indiana Statehouse that his “wonderful team” plans to “serve Hoosiers to the very last hour.”
Pence sat next to GOP Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb during a meeting with numerous state agency leaders for the first such gathering since Holcomb won election last week to succeed Pence as governor on Jan. 9. That’s 11 days before Donald Trump is sworn in as president.
“We’re going to finish strong. We’re going to roll our sleeves up and finish this job,” said Pence, who ruled out resigning early as governor.
Pence has spent little time at the Statehouse since his selection in July as Trump’s running mate, as he was kept busy flying around the country campaigning for Trump. It is unlikely he’ll spend much more time in the governor’s office, since Trump has put him in charge of the presidential transition committee, which will keep him busy helping construct Trump’s administration.
Pence said he plans to recruit people with “character and the competence” to implement Trump’s vision for the country. It is a position that could allow him to wield considerable influence.
He downplayed that role Monday, telling reporters he was humbled to play a “small part.”
Pence did not respond to a question about the appointment of Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon as a senior Trump adviser. The website specializes in button-pushing headlines, including one that called conservative commentator Bill Kristol a “Republican spoiler, renegade Jew.”
Pence and Holcomb left Indiana later Monday to travel to Orlando, Florida, for the Republican Governors Association meeting that runs through Wednesday, Holcomb spokesman Pete Seat said.
Indiana Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly said Monday he was hopeful of being able to work with the Trump administration on issues such as making changes to President Barack Obama’s health care law. Trump has said he was considering keeping a clause that allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance policies and might keep the prohibition against insurers denying coverage because of patients’ existing conditions.
“We’ve always liked those parts,” Donnelly said. “We have over 400,000 Hoosiers who are covered by insurance today that were not before the Affordable Care Act was put in place.”
Donnelly said he had a phone call with Pence in which he congratulated him on the election victory and told him the people of Indiana were praying for his success.
“Know you have friends on both sides in Washington,” Donnelly said. “Know that when President Trump and you want to do good things that move the country ahead, we’ll be with you every single time.”
Political observers expect that many people could join the Trump administration from Indiana, which has been incubator of sorts of GOP pro-business policy initiatives.
“You’ve got 12 years of Republican control of the governor’s office,” former Pence spokesman Robert Vane said. “You have an almost limitless pool of thoughtful leaders and political talent.”
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