Republican vice presidential candidate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence hugs Heidi Otiker after speaking with her, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016, in Kokomo, Ind. | AP Photo Pence leaves 2016 trail to deal with storm at home Indiana’s governor, with the state’s Democratic leaders, tours tornado damaged areas.

KOKOMO, Ind. — Gov. Mike Pence left the campaign trail Thursday to tour neighborhoods damaged by severe storms, swooping in on a Black Hawk helicopter on a rare day of bipartisanship for Donald Trump's running mate.

As Trump continues to bewilder supporters with his apparent shift on his signature issue of immigration, Pence and Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly walked past destroyed homes and spoke with families rattled by the sudden destruction all around them. The twists and turns of the 2016 campaign seemed distant — until they didn't.


"I like to lead from the front," Pence told reporters, a thinly veiled shot to the "leading from behind" mantra Republicans have slapped on President Barack Obama's and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's foreign policy. “It’s the kind of leadership that I’ve always practiced.”

But, for the most part, Pence avoided politics Thursday. He canceled campaign stops in Ohio to tour the wreckage.

Pence arrived in Kokomo before noon on Thursday, landing in a helicopter outside of a shuttered General Motors plant. After speaking with Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight, a Democrat, Pence and his motorcade rolled through block after block of fallen tree limbs, stopping in one of the hardest hit areas.

He hugged Heidi Otiker outsider her home, which escaped the worst of the damage. He spoke to Terry Munson, whose home, built by his grandfather in 1958, had been almost entirely destroyed.

“We’ve had this house for three generations in this family, and it’s going back up,” Munson told Pence.

Pence, dressed in boots, jeans and a blue collar shirt that bore his name and title, nodded sympathetically and asked questions of various residents as he moved down the block.

“It was good to see them in the midst of all this,” Munson said. “If we could’ve gotten them to pick up some sticks and move them that would’ve been even better.”

At one point, Pence walked past a house with a large truck overturned in the front yard, dropped there as though it were a child’s toy. Pence’s usual quick smile and ebullient laugh were largely gone. As the motorcade moved to leave the neighborhood en route to a destroyed Starbucks, it suddenly came to a halt. A family was standing in their front yard. Pence hopped out of the car and strode over to them. It was Jennifer and Kayla Nielander, a couple that has been married for six years. They explained to him that they had hidden in the closet with their 3-year-old child as the storm swept through. Pence, an ardent opponent of same-sex marriage who faced a wave of criticism for signing a law that critics said legalized discrimination against the LGBT community, listened earnestly, asking about the experience.

He hugged Kayla.

“I’m glad you’re OK,” he said.

“Not a Pence supporter, but I appreciate what he’s doing here,” Jennifer Nielander said. “Anybody who takes their time away from their life goal, you know, he’s trying to be vice president and he stopped to come back to little Kokomo because we had tornadoes. That, to me, says something.”

Pence toured the destroyed Starbucks and visited a Red Cross shelter, joined by Donnelly, Goodnight, his Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb and Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.).

“We’re just here to work for the people from our state,” Donnelly said. “Mike is the vice presidential candidate but to each other he’s Mike and I’m Joe and how can we make lives better for everybody.”

The two had not discussed politics during the visit, Donnelly said.

“I'm very proud to be here,” Pence told reporters during a brief news conference. ”Walking through the neighborhood across the highway, it’s just very moving to me to talk to these families.”

Pence is expected to return to the campaign trail on Saturday in the crucial swing state of Virginia. For some residents in Kokomo, the future is not so certain.

“We’re making progress,” said Mark Martinez, 45, standing in the driveway of his destroyed home, wreckage strewn around him.

“Just keep your heads up and they’d try to help with what they could,” he said Pence told him. Martinez had left his house just minutes before the storm struck to go pick up his 6-year-old daughter at school. Her main concern, he said, was the safety of their dog, who survived. Speaking with two reporters, Martinez removed his glasses, wiped sweat from his brow. The inevitable question: what happens next?

“Don’t know yet,” Martinez said.