Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Understanding the President’s Cabinet: Vice President
Understanding the President’s Cabinet: Vice President
Jul 1, 2025 11:57 AM

Note: This is the post #17 in a weekly series of explanatory posts on the officials and agencies included in the President’s Cabinet. See the series introductionhere.

Cabinet position:Vice President (VPOTUS)

Current: Mike Pence

Succession:The Vice President is second in the presidential line of succession.

Primary Duties:The Vice President is also the President of the Senate, and in this role has two primary functions: to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock (which Pence has done twice) and to preside over and certify the official vote count of the Electoral College after a presidential election. The National Security Act of 1947 also makes VPOTUS a statutory member of the National Security Council.

Secretary Info

Vice President:Mike Pence

Previous occupation: Governor of Indiana

Education:BA in history from Hanover College, and a JD degree from the Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Previous government experience:Served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001-2013.

Religious Affiliation:Evangelical (nondenominational)

Notable achievements:

• Served as president of the Indiana Policy Review Foundation.

• While in Congress, served as head of the Republican Study Committee and Republican conference chairman.

• Hosted “The Mike Pence Show,” a syndicated radio talk show and morning TV show.

Notable quotes:

On political identity: “I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican … in that order.”

On school choice: “Children in this state ought to be afforded opportunities for quality education. Those decisions should be made in the best interests of our kids, and those decisions should be made by parents.”

On his influences: “I would say that my Christian faith and my relationship with (my wife) Karen are the two most dominant influences in my life today.

Previous and ing posts in this series:Secretary of State,Secretary of the Treasury,Secretary of Education, Secretary of Labor,Secretary of Defense, Attorney General,Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce,Secretary of Health and Human Services,Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy,Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Secretary of Homeland Security,U.S. Trade Representative,Director of National Intelligence,Representative of the United States to the United Nations,Director of the Office of Management and Budget,Director of the Central Intelligence Agency,Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,Administrator of the Small Business Administration,White House Chief of Staff

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Immigration Policy and the Future of Free Market
I have been quite concerned for some time about the shrill debate over illegal immigration and its potential fallout for free trade. I have argued, at Acton events and elsewhere, that no long-term solution to the flow of illegal immigration from Mexico is possible, without significant economic growth in Mexico. U.S. per capita GDP is 6.5 times greater than the Mexican per capita GDP. The public service infrastructure in the US is far superior to that in Mexico. Taken together,...
Fast Company’s Social Capitalists
Fast Company has announced the results of its 2007 search for socially panies, conducted along with Monitor Group. View the winners and their grades in slideshow form here. The winners range from the generally praiseworthy, such as ACCION International, to the rather more questionable, like Ceres, whose claim to fame on the list is that “after joining Ceres, Dell agreed to support legislation to require electronics recycling,” to the downright stultifying, such as TransFair USA, the certifying body for the...
The State Which Would Provide Everything
is the title of an insightful article by Fr. James Schall over at the Ignatius site. An analysis of the political contribution of Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, ments: The Second half of the encyclical is a brilliant treatise on the nature and limits of the State and what lies beyond it. "We do not need a state which regulates and controls everything," Benedict writes, "but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges...
The Parenting Class
Along the same lines as my earlier post, The Weekly Standard argues that putting the needs of parents first, can form a more stable foundation for an alliance between fiscal and social conservatives. Both fiscal and social conservatives should put themselves in the shoes of the parenting class and focus on petition and choice while also encouraging the growth and strength of the two-parent family. In health care, for instance, conservatives have consistently failed to approach things from that point...
Generous Conservatives
Desperate Philanthropist? In a recent column in the National Post, David Frum looks at an “astonishing” new book on charitable giving due out this month from Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks. In “Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth of Compassionate Conservatism,” Brooks contends that conservatives are really “more generous, more honest and more public-spirited” than liberals. Frum starts his column with a quote from Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria, who asserts: “Everyone on Wisteria Lane has the money of...
A Thanksgiving Prayer
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men. We bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we beseech thee, give us that...
Natural Law and Christian Social Thought
Two new and intriguing books from Cambridge University Press have crossed my editorial desk recently. Anticipate reviews to appear in the Journal of Markets & Morality sometime next year; but in the meantime I wanted to give them each a plug. Both draw on the philosophical tradition of the natural law to address contemporary debates in social/political thought. The argument of Christopher Wolfe’s Natural Law Liberalism is summed up in a blurb by Notre Dame law professor Gerard Bradley: “No...
Wait – You Mean Taxpayers DON’T Have to Pay for Stadiums?
Refreshing news from Major League Baseball: In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say, I have loved the Oakland Athletics for a long time now. I love how they are the anti-Yankees, consistently fielding winning teams despite having one of the lower payrolls in the game, and losing superstar after superstar to richer teams. I love their plucky spirit and their annual belief-defying August winning streaks. I love Billy Beane’s flair for the dramatic. I love that they...
Bonhoeffer on Church and State, Part 3
The following is the text of a paper presented on November 15, 2006 at the Evangelical Theological Society 58th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, which was themed, “Christians in the Public Square.” Part 3 of 3 follows below (series index). War and Peace I will conclude with a brief word about Bonhoeffer and pacifism, given the ongoing claims about Bonhoeffer’s mitment to the practice of nonviolence.[i] First, it should be noted, with Clifford J. Green, that it is invalid to...
Good News for the Moralists
Here’s some good news for those who prefer bat cultural evil through the edification and cultivation of moral sensibilities: In “Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets,” Alvin E. Roth finds that “distaste for certain kinds of transactions is a real constraint, every bit as real as the constraints imposed by technology or by the requirements of incentives and efficiency.” He also finds that “while repugnance can change over time, change can be quite slow.” This presumably applies to the decrease...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved