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Last updated on Monday, December 15, 2014
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Gov. Mike Pence may be positioning himself to run for president and a planned trip will fuel that speculation.
Pence is headed to Israel. He's going on a nine-day trip and his family will go along. It's just another move that will get him noticed well beyond Indiana.
Pence has a solid approval rating and an equally solid conservative record, but he doesn't like to talk about his political future.
"The encouragement that I receive as I travel around," he said, "I always turn back on Hoosiers. The success of our state is all about the success of our people."
Yet he is taking on the president in ways other governors do not.
Pence sued the Obama administration over new clean air standards that he calls a "war on coal" and he's also sued to reverse the president's executive order on immigration.
"We need to fix a broken immigration system," he said. "The way to do it is through the legislative process."
And now he's headed to Israel where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government leaders.
"I consider Israel our most cherished ally," he said, "and we received earlier this year an invitation from the prime minister's office to come and to visit."
The trip will be paid for by Christians United for Israel and the Pence family will spend Christmas in Jerusalem.
"The ability to be over there and, in a very real sense, reflect on the important relationship that the people of Indiana have had with the people of Israel for generations in this state," said the governor, "is a great privilege for me."
It will be the governor's third foreign trip this year following visits to Germany and England where the governor traveled on trade missions. And trade will also be an element of this visit. The state's economic development team will join Pence in Israel for three of the nine days.
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