IN THIS EDITION: Mike Pence escalates his conflict with Donald Trump over Jan. 6, and gets closer to qualifying for the first GOP presidential primary debate. Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Doden launches the first elements of a $2 million ad campaign. And Republican Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch sharpens her knives ahead of a possible entrance into the race by fellow establishment lane candidate Brad Chambers. Scroll down for more.
For much of the first 54 days of his presidential campaign, Mike Pence has been relegated to the contest’s lower tier, fighting for scraps and single-digit polls at a crowded table featuring Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.
On day 55, the former vice president took the main stage.
The indictment of Trump by special counsel Jack Smith for his efforts to undermine the 2020 election, placed a sharper focus on Pence’s actions leading up to and on Jan. 6, including the revelation that he kept contemporaneous notes. It also elevated the idea that Pence himself would be a litmus test for the rest of the field: Would they have made a different decision that day?
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Pence showed no regrets or equivocations in the hours after Smith unveiled his indictment.
“With regard to the substance of the indictment,” Pence said, “I’ve been very clear: I had hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I had hoped that this issue, and the judgment of the president’s actions that day would be left to the American people. But now it’s been brought in a criminal indictment.”
Good morning, and welcome back to IMPORTANTVILLE.
It’s the one-year anniversary of the late Rep. Jackie Walorski’s death in a car wreck, and Hoosier politicos are remembering and reflecting on her loss. “Jackie’s death still stings, and I continue to miss her energy, wit, wisdom, and leadership,” Sen. Todd Young wrote on Instagram. “My heart goes out to all of the families involved in that tragic accident one year ago.”
Mike Pence’s visit to the Indiana State Fair yesterday—which included climbing aboard the 1939 Chevy team bus from the movie Hoosiers, the film in which Pence was almost once an extra—came at a consequential moment in the race.
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