Mike Pence was on a list of Donald Trump’s vice presidential candidates a month before rumors to that effect surfaced in early July of 2016, according to the author of an upcoming book on the Columbus native.
“Pence: The Path to Power,” written by Andrea Neal, will be released Aug. 1, coinciding with a book signing by Neal that evening in Columbus.
Pence received a text on June 10, 2016, from Stephen Hilbert, CEO of life insurance company Conseco, asking whether he would want to be considered as Trump’s running mate, Neal said.
“Most people believe he didn’t pop up on Trump’s radar until July,” Neal said.
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The revelation about earlier interest in Pence by Republican Trump came from one of the 50 interviews she conducted for the nearly year-long project.
Neal is a former journalist and now a language arts and history teacher at St. Richard’s Episcopal School in Indianapolis. She also served two years on the Indiana Board of Education, an appointment made by Pence.
She was contacted by Indiana University Press during her 2017 spring break about writing a book on Pence.
“It would not have occurred to me in a million years,” Neal said. “It was just a call out of the blue.”
Indiana University Press sought a veteran writer of Indiana politics for the project.
“We were looking for someone who was knowledgeable of Pence and his time in politics in Indiana. We also wanted to ensure that we had an author that could be unbiased in their writing and offer the facts of Pence’s path to the vice presidency,” said Ashley Runyon, acquiring editor for Indiana University Press.
Neal spent 22 years as a journalist working for the United Press International and The Indianapolis Star, and was well connected to politics in the region and political operatives, making her an ideal choice to write the book, Runyon said.
Neal said she thought about the offer before accepting because she wanted to make sure she would have access to Pence and those closest to him. She reached out to Bill Smith, Pence’s longtime chief of staff, to see if that would be possible.
Ultimately, she accepted the book-writing offer without such assurance.
“I thought, I have a chance to write a book about a sitting vice president and it would be an amazing opportunity and I wanted to try,” Neal said.
Unfortunately, Neal said, Pence declined an invitation for an interview for the book, and none of his immediate family members agreed to interviews either.
“I am disappointed I didn’t get an interview with the vice president. I think that would have made for an even more comprehensive biography,” Neal said.
However, the volume of prior published news reports about Pence — some of it in The Republic — gave Neal plenty of background information that she needed. Neal also secured interviews with people who know Pence well. Former Republic owner Jeff Brown, a friend of Pence’s since childhood in Columbus and a Columbus North classmate, was among those interviewed.
Neal started the project in May 2017 and submitted the manuscript to her publishers in March of this year, she said.
She focused on Pence’s life story and path to the vice presidency because a focus on current events involving the vice president would have required daily rewriting, the author said.
Neal describes her book as the definitive Hoosier biography of Pence, and one that she believes will stand up historically because of her use of only documented sources and exclusion of anonymous ones.
“I wanted to write a book so when real historians 50 years from now examined the Trump-Pence era, they could use my material and trust it,” Neal said.
Among the things readers will learn about is that Pence has sense of humor that isn’t widely seen, Neal said. Readers will also learn that Pence has garnered respect from campaign opponents such as congressional challenger Melina Fox of Greensburg and gubernatorial foe John Gregg of Sandborn.
Despite making some mistakes, Pence has stuck to his vision, Neal said.
“He kept his eyes on the prize no matter what happened,” Neal said.
Red Lightning Books, a subsidiary of Indiana University Press that focuses on books for popular audiences, is the publisher of “Pence: The Path to Power.” Initially, 50,000 copies of the book will be printed, said Michelle Sybert, trade marketing and publicity manager for Indiana University Press.
The book’s title comes from Pence’s political ambition, Sybert said.
“The book’s Red Lightning team were surprised to learn from the book that Pence had been strategizing to become president since college and even high school. In addition to telling the facts of his life, Andrea does a fantastic job revealing the people and events that have influenced Pence and his pursuit of the presidency — and the power that comes with it.”
The book’s cover image has a striking resemblance to a magazine cover featuring another famous Columbus resident, the October 1967 cover of Esquire magazine with a photo of industrialist and philanthropist J. Irwin Miller and the title “This man should be president.”
Any similarity, according to the book’s cover designer, was unintentional, Sybert said.
Meet the author
Residents can meet author Neal at a book-signing event from 5-7 p.m. Aug. 1 at Viewpoint Books in downtown Columbus.
IU Press reached out to Viewpoint Books, co-owned by John and Beth Stroh, about having Neal promote her book at the store, Beth Stroh said.
Viewpoint Books works with local publishers to make the store available for local and regional authors, she said.
“To launch the book locally, I felt like it was a good thing for her and us,” Beth Stroh said.
The fact that the book is about a Columbus native, includes interviews with a number of local individuals and is a biography about Pence’s life should have appeal locally, she said.
“It’s a good look at someone our community is proud enough of to post a sign saying he is from here,” Beth Stroh said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”If you go” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
What: Book signing event for author, journalist and teacher Andrea Neal’s new book on Columbus native and Vice President Mike Pence, “Pence: The Path to Power”
When: 5-7 p.m. Aug. 1
Where: Viewpoint Books, 548 Washington St., Columbus
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