Published: July 29, 2016 |

Republican Vice Presidental Nominee, Mike Pence. (photo: Justin Dennis, Starbeacon.com)
[Click image to enlarge]

Mere hours after formally accepting the Republican Party’s vice presidential nomination, Mike Pence took time from a jam-packed schedule on Thursday morning to visit with the delegates from what could be a key swing state in this year’s general election.

The Indiana governor addressed the Pennsylvania delegation during a breakfast reception at the DoubleTree hotel in Westlake, Ohio, as part of Republican National Convention week.

He emphasized the importance of winning the delegate-rich Keystone State, which has not gone for a GOP presidential candidate since 1988. The Donald Trump/Pence ticket will attempt to end that losing streak against presumptive Democratic Party nominee, former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton.

“Not only is it our objective to elect Donald Trump the 45th president of the United States of America, but we’re going to win Pennsylvania when we do,” said Pence.

Pence, who attended the gathering as an unannounced speaker, touched on a few issues of importance to Pennsylvania voters, including the future of the coal industry.

“I think I heard a particularly rousing response when last night I said we don’t need a president who promises to put coal miners and coal companies out of work,” Pence said, referring to his acceptance speech on Wednesday at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. “We need a president who gets American energy independence on all of the above. And I promise you, Trump digs coal.”

He also called back to his acceptance speech when, once again, comparing Trump to former President Ronald Reagan.

“We have a candidate who is speaking to working Americans more clearly, who understands them more than anyone I believe since that president I mentioned a few times last night,” Pence said. “I love our 41st president (George Herbert Walker Bush). And I love George Walker Bush as well. But, in Ronald Reagan, there was someone who came from the heartland of the country, and his heart resonated with the American people. And, having spent time with this good man, our Republican nominee, I can tell you, in the time that we’re together, for all the world, he reminds me of that president. He truly does.”

Pence, a 1986 Indiana University School of Law graduate, has served as Indiana’s governor since January 2013. He was previously elected to six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump named Pence as his running mate last week.

“This is an extraordinary time in the life of our nation,” Pence said. “(My wife) Karen and I are deeply humbled to have been called upon to stand beside a man who I truly do believe will make America great again. But it’s going to take all of us. It’s going to take all of us working together in the days that remain between now and election day.”

Pence was supported onstage by members of Pennsylvania’s House delegation, including U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Sewickley, from the 12th Congressional District, when he spoke.

“Pennsylvania absolutely is going to be in play,” Rothfus said. “There’s a lot of momentum that’s building across western Pennsylvania in particular and across the whole state, for a new direction. Secretary Clinton represents the status quo. We know that the status quo is not working. And we could be in a much better place. Mike Pence is going to be part of the team to do that.”

Another member of the commonwealth’s delegation, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, from the 3rd Congressional District, added, “You can’t look at Donald Trump and look at Mike Pence and say they are anything but the last hope that we have for the future of our great country.”

Source: (July 22, 2016) The Tribune Democrat

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