With presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump seriously vetting Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as a potential running mate, it's no longer all that far fetched.
Whether your reaction to the news was "Mike Who?" or you just need a refresher on his two-plus decades in politics, here's what you should know about the 50th governor of Indiana.
1. He says he's "a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order."
Pence has long said his approach to governing is informed not by party, but by his faith and his love of the Constitution.
He's staunchly anti-abortion rights, and while in Congress he led the federal government to the brink of shutdown in 2011 in a failed attempt to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
A born-again evangelical Christian, Pence has also been a strong proponent of religious freedom, and believes marriage should be between a man and a woman.
In addition to his faith, his views on governance were strongly influenced by Russell Kirk, a fountainhead of modern conservative thought, who wrote "The Conservative Mind."
"The conservative is animated by the principle of driving toward the ideal of solutions that are grounded in economic freedom and individual liberty, but also understanding that compromise is part of the conservative approach to governance," Pence told IndyStar in a 2015 interview, referring to Kirk's philosophy. "I don't believe in compromising principles, but I do believe in finding a way forward on the basis of authentic common ground."
2. He was raised Catholic and idolized JFK
Pence and his five siblings grew up in Columbus, Ind., in a family of devout Catholic churchgoers. His parents weren't especially political, he told IndyStar in a 2012 profile, but as a young man, figures like John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. inspired him to get involved in politics.
He volunteered for the Bartholomew County Democratic Party in 1976 and voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980.
It wasn't until college, when he met his future wife, Karen, at an evangelical church that he became a born-again Christian. A history major at Hanover College, Pence said his political views, too, began to shift.
"I started to identify with that kind of common-sense conservatism of Ronald Reagan," Pence told the IndyStar, "and before I knew it, I decided I was a Republican and moved up here in Indianapolis in 1983 to go to law school."
3. He was a six-term Congressman, serving from 2001-2012
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Pence's championing of conservative social issues gained him the most attention, but he also fought to shrink the size of government, showing a willingness to buck party leadership to do so.
As a freshman in 2001, he opposed the No Child Left Behind policy supported by President George W. Bush, a fellow Republican. That law seeks to raise student performance and increase accountability for educators. Pence calls it an unfunded mandate that grew government.
During Pence's second year in office, he opposed another GOP-favored initiative: the Medicare prescription drug expansion.
In later years, he persuaded Republicans to cut spending in the federal budget before approving money for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in 2005. He also opposed the bank bailout in 2008, leading to Congress abandoning a plan to buy financial institutions' most toxic assets.
4. He signed RFRA, and gave a disastrous interview defending it
Over the objections of the business community and LGBT rights groups, Pence in 2015 signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, setting off the biggest controversy of his political career.
Proponents said RFRA was needed to add another layer of protection for exercising one's religious beliefs free of government intrusion. The law in essence prohibited the government from intruding on a person's religious liberty unless it could prove a compelling interest in imposing that burden and do so in the least restrictive way.
Opponents, however, feared it could be used to discriminate against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in the name of religion. It explicitly overruled existing human rights ordinances that extend anti-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The bill's passage sparked a national firestorm. National media outlets swarmed Indiana, and major employers and conventions threatened to boycott the state. There was even an unsuccessful movement to relocate the NCAA Men's Final Four, which was held in Indianapolis less than two weeks later.
The weekend following the bill signing, Pence attempted to defend RFRA and pour water on the fire. Instead, he may have only fueled it.
In a nationally televised interview, ABC's George Stephanopoulos asked Pence six times whether the new law would allow a business to discriminate against gay couples. Six times, Pence ducked the question.
"This is where this debate has gone, with misinformation," Pence said. "We've been doing our level best, George, to correct the gross mischaracterization of this law that has been spread all over the country by many in the media … and the online attacks against the people of our state. I'm just not going to stand for it."
The interview was widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike, who said he didn't do enough to dispel the idea that Indiana was intolerant of the LGBT community.
