Just weeks after filing for re-election, Rep. Greg Pence, R-Indiana, has hit the campaign trail — stumping for President Donald Trump.
Pence, 63, who is seeking a second term representing Indiana’s Sixth Congressional District, made stops in Iowa and New Hampshire this month in support of Trump’s re-election bid.
“Congressman Pence was asked by the Trump campaign to be a surrogate in support of President Trump in Iowa and New Hampshire,” said Liz Dessauer, Pence campaign spokeswoman, in a statement. “…Congressman Pence will continue to advocate for the Trump-Pence team all the way through election day.”
On Monday and Tuesday, Pence was in New Hampshire, where he met with volunteers and voters at local schools and a community center before attending Trump’s rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the eve of that state’s first-in-the-nation primaries, according to Pence’s Twitter account.
During Monday night’s rally, Trump gave Pence a brief shout out, telling those in attendance that the first-term congressman has “a very familiar name,” seemingly in reference to the congressman’s brother and Columbus native, Vice President Mike Pence.
On Feb. 3, Congressman Pence visited Iowa, where he spoke at Pleasantville Baptist Church in Pleasantville, Iowa, a town of around 1,700 people located approximately 25 miles southeast of the capital, Des Moines.
Trump won the GOP primary in New Hampshire, receiving nearly 86% of the vote, while his closest Republican challenger, former Massachusetts governor, Bill Weld received 9%, The Associated Press reported. The president also won the GOP Iowa caucus on Feb. 3 with 97% of the vote, according to wire reports.
Congressman Pence, who filed his declaration of candidacy on Jan. 23, has one challenger in the Indiana Republican primary, Mike Campbell, according to records from the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office.
Jeannine Lee Lake, George T. Holland and Barry Welsh have filed for the Democratic primary. Lake, a community activist, businesswoman and former reporter for The Muncie Star, won the Democratic nomination for the same seat in 2018, but lost to Pence in the general election. The Indiana primary is May 5.
Dessauer said the congressman’s campaign stops in Iowa and New Hampshire were bankrolled by Trump’s re-election campaign.
“Costs of the trip were paid for by the Trump campaign and in full compliance with federal campaign finance law,” she said.
