Claim: Mike Pence is a Republican.

The 2016 Indiana gubernatorial election was held November 8 , 2016 , to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Indiana , concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election as well as elections to the United States Senate and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections . The primaries were held on May 3 , 2016 . Republican Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb won the race with 51.4 % of the vote .   Incumbent Republican Governor Mike Pence was running for reelection to a second term in office until July 15 , 2016 , when Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump selected Pence as his vice presidential running mate . As Pence was barred by Indiana law from simultaneously running for both offices , he subsequently withdrew from the gubernatorial election . He was replaced on the ballot for Governor by his former running mate , incumbent Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb , who was selected by the Indiana Republican State Committee as the nominee on July 26 , 2016 . Holcomb later selected State Auditor Suzanne Crouch on August 1 , 2016 , to be his running mate as the nomination for Lieutenant Governor was made vacant by the decision of Holcomb to seek the gubernatorial nomination ; she was confirmed at a subsequent meeting of the Indiana Republican State Committee later that day .   John Gregg , the former Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives , was the Democratic nominee . Gregg previously ran for Governor in 2012 , but was defeated by Pence .