Mike Pence. (AP)
“[I]t is a literal truth ... to say that I am in Congress today because of Rush Limbaugh,” said then-Congressman and now Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence of Indiana in 2001.
In a speech in the House of Representatives, Pence described how he was inspired by Rush Limbaugh, who runs the No. 1 conservative talk-radio show in the nation, to host his own radio show from 1989 to 2000.
“I was, in every sense, Rush Limbaugh’s warm-up act in Indiana,” said Pence. “It was from that platform of popularity and distinction that I was able to accept the call in the year 2000 to try again, for the third time, to run to stand in this Chamber.”
“The truth is, he has been an inspiration to many millions of Americans,” said Pence. “After Ronald Reagan left the national stage in 1988 and many of us conservatives were searching for a voice, and for over 20 million Americans, that voice was and is Rush Limbaugh.”
Pence represented Indiana’s sixth congressional district from 2000 to 2012 before being elected governor of Indiana.
Below is a transcript of Pence’s remarks:
“But it is a literal truth, Mr. Speaker, to say that I am in Congress today because of Rush Limbaugh, and not because of some tangential impact on my career or his effect on the national debate; but because in fact after my first run for Congress in 1988, it was the new national voice emerging in 1989 across the heartland of Indiana of one Rush Hudson Limbaugh, III, that captured my imagination.
“And while I would run for Congress again and lose, I was inspired by those dulcet tones to seek a career in radio and television. I began my career in radio in Rushville, Indiana, in Rush County, in 1989, trying to do my level best impersonation of Rush Limbaugh in those early days; and it was, I am here to tell you, bad radio when I started.
“By 1992, I began hosting a regular radio show in Indianapolis. It was a weekend conversation that became the most popular program on WNDE in the weekend lineup; and it was there that I became emboldened, listening oftentimes to the entrepreneurial spirit that emanated out of the Rush Limbaugh program to start my own syndicated radio program that grew over a 7-year period of time to a daily audience of over a quarter of a million people, 18 radio stations across Indiana. I was, in every sense, Rush Limbaugh’s warm-up act in Indiana, airing every time from 9 a.m. to noon as his lead-in on many Hoosier stations.
Rush Limbaugh. (EIB)
“It was from that platform of popularity and distinction that I was able to accept the call in the year 2000 to try again, for the third time, to run to stand in this Chamber. So I rise today in recognition of that fact. I rise today in appreciation of the example that Rush Limbaugh has been to me, both as an entrepreneur and as an American.
“The truth is, he has been an inspiration to many millions of Americans. After Ronald Reagan left the national stage in 1988 and many of us conservatives were searching for a voice, and for over 20 million Americans, that voice was and is Rush Limbaugh.”
Mike Pence is the Republican vice presidential candidate for 2016. He is married and has three children. He earned a B.A. in history from Hanover College and a J.D. from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.