Former Vice President Mike Pence is heading back to downtown Indianapolis for a public talk and book signing on August 20, bringing his third book, What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience, to the same institution that hosted him nearly four years ago. The event lands at a pointed moment, arriving just weeks after its host, the Indiana Historical Society, laid off 11 employees and shut down a program it had run for four decades.
The Columbus, Indiana native and former Indiana governor will appear at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center for “An Evening with Mike Pence,” which includes remarks from Pence and a conversation with Indiana Historical Society Board of Trustees Chair William Barrett, according to The Republic. Tickets cost $55 and include a copy of the book, require advance registration, and are available through the Indiana Historical Society's event page. Pence will sign copies of the book for attendees.
Barrett is no stranger to Pence's political orbit. He previously served as general counsel to the Indiana Republican Party and was appointed to the state's Uniform Law Commission by Pence during his tenure as governor, according to the American Law Institute. That relationship gives the evening's format — a friendly public conversation rather than an adversarial interview — some added context.
A Familiar Venue, A Changed Institution
This isn't Pence's first stop at the Indiana Historical Society. The society hosted “An Evening with Mike Pence” in November 2022 for his first book, So Help Me God, with program tickets priced at $25 and package deals with a book included at $50, per the Indiana Historical Society's records of that earlier event.
But the institution returning as host this time has undergone significant strain. In July, the society laid off 11 employees and ended its 40-year management of the statewide National History Day program following state budget cuts, as Hoodline previously reported. Founded on December 11, 1830 — 14 years after Indiana became a state — the society is the oldest state historical society west of the Allegheny Mountains, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis.
What Conservatives Believe Takes Aim at GOP Populism
Pence's new book, published June 2, 2026 by Center Street, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, is explicitly framed as a 21st-century response to Barry Goldwater's 1960 classic The Conscience of a Conservative. According to the seed facts underlying the book's promotion, it argues that Republicans must rediscover the principles of true conservatism to deal with the challenges of tomorrow, asking the party to choose enduring conservative principles over what it describes as the temptations of big-government populism.
That framing lines up with comments Pence made while promoting the book earlier this year. In interviews tied to the June release, Pence sharply criticized the second Trump administration for embracing what he called “populist right” economic policies, singling out tariffs and government equity stakes in private firms like U.S. Steel as departures from core conservatism, according to NPR.
Building an Organization Around the Message
Pence hasn't limited his pushback to books and interviews. His advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, expanded its policy operation in June after securing $9 million in funding to recruit more than a dozen former staffers who had departed the Heritage Foundation, per The Dispatch. In an August appearance on Fox News Radio, Pence said the group aims to anchor the GOP around fiscal discipline, constitutionalism, strong national defense, and anti-populism as the party looks toward the 2028 election cycle.
The book tour also continues a bibliography that has grown steadily since Pence exited national electoral politics. He withdrew from the 2024 Republican presidential primary in October 2023, ending his campaign before any votes were cast due to fundraising difficulties, according to PBS News. His second book, Go Home for Dinner: Advice on How Faith Makes a Family and Family Makes a Life, co-authored with his daughter Charlotte Pence Bond, was published in November 2023 by Simon & Schuster.
Pence's résumé spans decades of Indiana and national politics: he represented Bartholomew County and surrounding areas in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013, served as Indiana's 50th governor from 2013 to 2017, and served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. The August 20 appearance folds those chapters into his newest role — that of a former vice president positioning himself as a check on his own party's rightward populist drift while promoting a book explicitly built to argue the case.
