SIDNEY, IA – With a crowd mostly professing undecided status at Penn Drug and Coffee Shop in Sidney, Iowa, Friday, Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence stopped to pray and pushed for a consistent conservative agenda.

Payton Arnett, a student at Union College in Lincoln, prayed with Pence and his wife Karen for blessing and God’s guidance. He later called Pence a better hope for America.

Arnett: “I do love Mike Pence. I see great qualities of a leader in him and he seems to be a man of God.”

Pence: “The prayers of people of faith have just sustained us throughout our public life. To have him come out today to share a word of encouragement, but also to pray with us, is deeply meaningful to me. As I think about our candidacy, I hope people know where we get our hope and it’s faith in the Lord. It’s that grace that has always sustained us and I think it’s still the hope of the country.”

 

 

Pence did not mention former President Donald Trump by name during his speech, but offered himself as a better hope.

 Pence: “I just honestly believe different times call for different leaders. The challenges we are facing in this country need to be met with experienced leadership, but also leadership that will move us past the divisive chapters through which we pass in the Biden Administration and frankly for many years. I think our brand of leadership, my commitment to a traditional conservative agenda, willingness to fight for a strong defense, for fiscal responsibility, for the right to life, all make me the most qualified, as well as the most consistent conservative in the race.”

His campaign material says former President Donald Trump is straying from conservative principles in terms of right to life and reducing the national debt.

Pence campaign promises included re-instating Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy and cracking down on what he called asylum fraud.

 

He advocated a national return to institutional mental health to deal with mental health issues and gun violence and said he would lead the debate on federal funding for an armed resource officer in every public and private school.

Pence warned about Russian aggression and advocated support for the Ukrainian military.

In his bid for the Republican nomination for President, he vows to visit every county in Iowa.

 Immigration, border security

Pence: “The crisis at our border is 100 percent man made and that man’s name is Joe Biden.”

Pence: “We had ended illegal immigration and asylum abuse for all intents and purposes during our administration and now it’s more than 6 million people that have come into our country illegally, not to mention the avalanche of fentanyl that has literally claimed lives, frankly, in every county in this state and every county in this country.”

Mental health/gun violence

Fremont County Supervisor Chris Clark asked the former vice president about illegal drugs and the strain under mental health issues.

Pence: “In the 1970s this country – Iowa, Indiana everywhere else, walked away from institutional mental health. … I think we’ve got to go back. I think it’s related not just to giving people the opportunity to have somewhere to send a loved one, where they can go and great treatment for a longer period of time, but I also look at this scourge of violence in our country. Particularly this scourge of mass shootings in this country. I honestly believe returning our country to institutional mental health care is an idea whose time has come. As president I am going to lead that national debate.”

Pence: “This woman (Karen Pence) was a school teacher for 30 years in elementary schools, we’re going to end the discussion about whether or not local schools can afford to have an armed security officer because I will give federal funding to 100 percent of the public and private schools in America to hire an armed resource officer on day one.”

Russia and Ukraine

Pence: “There is a moral case to be there and support (Ukraine) in that fight.”

Pence: “I support military aid to Ukrainian military because I have no doubt that if Vladimir Putin overruns Ukraine, he’s going to cross a border where our men and women are going to have to go and fight. I  hold what used to be called the Reagan Doctrine, which is if you are willing to fight our enemies on your soil with your soldiers, we’ll give you the means to fight them there so we don’t have to fight them.”