Vice President-elect Mike Pence certainly had a full plate during his time as Indiana governor, but he apparently managed to squeeze in time to schmooze with his constituents — even the youngest ones.
State Rep. Randy Frye said that in April, his 11-year-old grandson Silas picked Mr. Pence to write about for a homework assignment on a famous Hoosier of students’ choice.
One evening when Mr. Pence was at Mr. Frye’s home, the vice president-elect not only cooperated, but helped Silas complete the assignment, Mr. Frye said. Mr. Frye said he has a picture of them together with a worksheet.
“That’s the kind of guy he is,” Mr. Frye said. “He’s got time for everyone, and when my grandson heard that Mike Pence was elected vice president, he told his mother, ’My best friend is now vice president of the United States.’ “
“So I was speaking with the vice president-elect a few days later on Veterans Day and I showed [him] that picture and I said, ’You remember this?’ and he says, ’Well, sure,’ ” Mr. Frye said.
“I said, I just want you to know Silas told his mom the day after the election that his best friend was vice president of the United States, to which he said, ’You tell Silas he’s right.’ That’s the kind of guy Mike Pence is,” he said.
“He always has time for the people,” Mr. Frye said. “No matter how busy he is, he has time for people, and that’s a real skill, I believe, in this day and age and I’ve always appreciated that about him.”
State Sen. Jean Leising had a similar story from about three years ago when her oldest granddaughter, who was about 12 or 13 at the time and was working as a page in the statehouse, attended a reception at Mr. Pence’s residence one evening.
“He was so kind to her that night. He signed a napkin for her; they had their picture taken and of course, being a nice grandma I framed all that stuff for her and she just recently, in the last week, showed me this framed … sort of composite thing I did for her,” Ms. Leising said.
“And she said my gosh, Grandma, now he’s going to be the vice president. … It was really nice of him to take the time to acknowledge her, right?” she said. “Because there are all these important legislators there that he could have spent a hundred percent of his time schmoozing for his agenda. But he took the time for at least five minutes to speak to my granddaughter Emily.”
“And you know, I think that shows the kind of person he is,” she said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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