“We are leaving NC and getting back to Indiana,” Mike Pence wrote on Twitter. | AP Photo Pence cancels campaign events after Indiana storms

INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mike Pence will take a break from the campaign trail to visit regions of his state struck Wednesday by severe storms and tornadoes, saying at a news conference that his responsibilities as governor come before any campaign duties as Donald Trump’s running mate.

“We’ll be here as long as we need to be to make sure that Hoosiers that have been impacted by these storms have what they need and have the support that they need,” Pence said at a hastily organized news conference at the state’s emergency operations center after he was briefed on the storm damage. “I have no higher priority than the safety and security of Hoosiers.”


On Thursday, the Republican governor will visit Montgomery and Howard counties, where the storm damage was most severe. Some of the worst damage was in Kokomo, a city of more than 50,000 people north of Indianapolis. No fatalities have been reported.

“I’m an eyes-on leader,” Pence said. “I like to be on the ground and talk to people on the front lines, and also, most importantly, talk to families and just make sure they’re getting the support that they need and the encouragement that they need.”

Pence was originally scheduled to campaign in Ohio on Thursday.

The storms struck Wednesday afternoon, destroying homes and leaving thousands without power.

“It is truly remarkable that there are such a few number of injuries or worse in the wake of this storm given the fact that it literally struck Howard County virtually at shift change in the afternoon in a great manufacturing town, and about the time kids were getting out of school, just about the worst possible time,” Pence said.

The scene change was an abrupt one for Pence, shifting from the boisterous crowds on the campaign trail to the somber work of governing during a time of disaster.

Pence was campaigning in North Carolina on Wednesday and was briefed on the storm shortly before 3 p.m., minutes before taking the stage in Leland for a rally. Pence still delivered his usual stump speech, speaking for about half an hour to a small crowd behind a local manufacturing plant, and worked a rope line afterward. He sat for a remote news interview afterward with Bill O’Reilly of Fox News.

Pence was briefed again after his speech, campaign spokesman Marc Lotter said. Pence passed up opportunities for other local interviews and finance meetings to return more quickly to Indiana. He spoke with the head of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and, upon return to Indiana, went directly to the state’s emergency operations center, where he received an additional briefing.

Pence told reporters on the flight back to Indianapolis that he will stay in the state “so long as it takes for us to make sure that these communities have the resources and the support that they need to put themselves back together after these very violent storms.”

Out-of-state campaigning poses risks for any sitting governor. For Trump and Pence, who recently made a point of visiting flood-ravaged Louisiana before President Barack Obama visited, the optics of Pence’s absence could have been damaging. But the campaign team reacted quickly, getting the governor in front of cameras while being briefed at the emergency operation center and again delivering remarks on the storms.

