The last trip Donald Trump’s likely running mate made to Iowa was in the fall of 2014. Indiana Governor Mike Pense attended the Midwest U.S./Japan Association meeting in Des Moines and used the occasion to speak about foreign policy.
“As President Reagan proved, peace comes through strength and, conversely, weakness arouses evil,” Pence said.
Pence was among six governors who spoke at the event, which focused on trade ties between the Midwest and Japan. Pence, though, took time to talk about the military alliance between the U.S. and Japan.
“Japan is, without a doubt, America’s most important ally in the Pacific,” Pence said. “And so we must acknowledge that a stronger military in Japan with broader capabilities, a stronger military in America will mean a stronger and safer free world.”
Many news media outlets are reporting Pence will be revealed as Trump’s pick for vice president in New York Friday morning. Trump has said publicly he was looking for someone who could work with congress and Pence was a member of congress before he ran for governor of Indiana in 2012. During his 2014 trip to Iowa, Pence touted his stewardship of Indiana.
“Indiana’s a state that works, as we like to say. In the middle of America, we like to call ourselves ‘The Heart of the Heartland,'” Pence told that crowd in 2014. “Indiana is a place where we’ve demonstrated that a government can live within your means, can make important investments in infrastructure and education…and we were able to enact the largest state tax cut in Indiana history. Our corporate tax rate, when it’s fully implemented, will be the second-lowest tax rate in America.”
Pence signed that tax cut package in the spring of 2014. At the beginning of this month, the state income tax for corporations based in Indiana dropped to 6.25 percent.
Pence made visits to Iowa in 2009 and 2010, but he ultimately decided to leave congress and run for governor of Indiana rather than run for president in 2012.
Listen to Pence’s speech at the 2010 Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s fall banquet here. Read a live blog of the entire event here.