POLITICO Pro Pence still considering presidential race

Mike Pence continues to keep the door open to running for president.

At the National Governors Association in Washington Saturday, the Indiana Republican said he will not make a decision about whether to run for reelection to a second term in 2016 — or to get into the crowded GOP presidential field — until the end of April at the earliest.


Pence, who also considered running for president in 2012, noted that he cannot do both.

“Indiana law, in terms of a federal office and a state office, doesn’t permit that,” he told POLITICO in an interview. “I can tell you: I’m a very focused person. We’ll spend some time this spring deciding on where our focus should be, and that will be our focus.”

The 55-year-old was a member of House Republican leadership until he was elected in 2012 to succeed Republican Mitch Daniels, who also thought seriously about running for president last time but decided not to pull the trigger.

“Our legislative session ends on April 29, and I’m completely focused on passing another honestly balanced budget, a balanced budget amendment and a robust education agenda,” said Pence.

Pence’s wait-and-see approach allows him to see how the field shakes out. There have already been a lot of fluctuations since the November midterms. Mitt Romney publicly considered getting in, then passed. Most didn’t expect Jeb Bush to run, and now many consider him the frontrunner. A lot of pundits took New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie more seriously than Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, but now Walker leads in some public polls of the early states.

Some Republicans wonder whether Walker is a flavor of the month or has staying power. If Walker shows fundraising and organizational prowess that establish him as the conservative alternative to Bush, it would seemingly deter someone like Pence — or Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is also keeping the door open to a run — from jumping into the race .

Pence, who served six terms in the House, talked up the importance of governing versus legislating and had kind words for his fellow governors.

“I can tell you that running statewide is a different kind of challenge, but running a state is enormously important experience,” he said. “That’s why I think we’ve got a great, deep bench at the national level today.”

He also touted his own record in the Hoosier State.

“We have strong reserves,” he said. “Unemployment’s down. When I became governor, it was 8 percent. It’s 5.8 percent today. We led the nation in manufacturing jobs created last year. So there are 49 governors who wish they could be me.”

Asked if he worries that anything he’s doing right now in Indiana could be used against him in a Republican primary down the road, Pence insisted that he’s a sequential governor who is taking things one step at a time.

“I don’t really think of it that way,” he said. “I’m an A-to-B, B-to-C, C-to-D guy.”