Trump Tweets: Pence Is My Pick For Veep
(CBS) -- Donald Trump has chosen Mike Pence as his vice presidential candidate.
The Republican presidential candidate posted the news on Twitter shortly before 10 a.m.
A news conference is scheduled for Saturday. On Thursday, Trump delayed the announcement, originally scheduled for Friday, because of the terror attacks in Nice, France.
Pence is in New York for meetings with the Trump campaign. Around 10 a.m., Pence filed paperwork in Indianapolis to formally withdraw from the governor's race. The document is dated Thursday, but was filed officially on Friday.
Pence brings religious conservatives into the fold and also knows his way around Washington, having served as congressman.
"I think he will help with evangelicals," said Andy Qunell, treasurer of the Lake County (Indiana) Republican Party. "I think he has a big support base there."
Some social conservatives haven't looked favorably on Trump's multiple marriages and one-time support of abortion rights.
Pence is a born-again Christian, who signed a religious freedom bill into law that some said legalized discrimination against gays, before it was amended.
And, Pence provides Trump with something else, someone who knows his way around Washington.
"Trump has great business experience," Qunell said. "You see that with Trump Tower, but there's not much government experience. Mike Pence brings that."
However, Pence's positions on abortion and gay rights have made him unpopular among voters in his state and he faced a tough re-election bid against Democrat John Gregg.
Nationally, he is virtually unknown, according to a recent CBS News poll.
Pence also backed Ted Cruz in the Indiana primary in May, but also praised Trump's commitment to keeping jobs in the United States.
Pence's family has Chicago roots, WBBM's Craig Dellimore reports. His grandfather arrived in Chicago in the 1920s and was a city bus driver for about 40 years and his parents were raised on the South Side around the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
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WBBM's Mike Krauser reports, the head of the Democratic Party in Lake County, Sheriff John Buncich, said flatly, "You're welcome Mr. Trump, you can have him."
