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Mike Pence slams ‘status quo’ Clinton, says Trump should pick Supreme Court

Mike Pence on the campaign trail
FILE -In this Sept. 30, 2016 file photo, Republican vice presidential candidate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence speaks in Fort Wayne, Ind. Pence musters all of his Midwestern earnestness as he describes Donald Trump as “a man of faith.” He says the Republican nominee is “a man I’ve prayed with and gotten to know on a personal level.” The description, in an interview with The Associated Press, stands in sharp relief to Trump's public profile over much of his career: a twice-divorced former playboy who has boasted of his sexual exploits, flaunted his wealth, used crass insults and made sweeping generalizations about whole races. Photo: (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence says Hillary Clinton “personifies” the failed status quo.

The Indiana governor told a crowd of hundreds in Holland, Michigan, on Saturday morning that Donald Trump would push “commonsense conservative principles” if elected president. It is Pence’s third consecutive day of campaigning in Michigan, which has not backed a Republican nominee in 28 years. Trump is hoping to change that Tuesday.

Both Trump and Pence have showed support for laws that would allow for anti-LGBTQ discrimination, such as the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), so-called “bathroom bills” like North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB2), and Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) laws, as well as for overturning same-sex marriage.

Pence is urging Republicans in conservative-leaning western Michigan to “come home” to the Republican candidate to keep Clinton from shaping the Supreme Court.

Republican Senators John McCain, Ted Cruz, and Richard Burr have all said that if Clinton wins, they should block her nominees and refuse to confirm anyone.

Trump has said he wants to appoint far-right judges in the mold of antigay Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February.

A month later, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, the chief judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, to succeed him. Republicans have so far refused to hold a hearing on his nomination.

Pence is set to also campaign in Wisconsin and Virginia on Saturday.

Jeff Taylor contributed to this report.

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