If opposites attract, Mike Pence might be the perfect match for Donald Trump.

The Republican governor of Indiana—and Trump’s vice presidential pick—checks boxes Trump leaves blank: government experience, a conservative track record, and an even-keeled temperament averse to name-calling or mudslinging.

Now Pence has a new box to check: extol a presidential candidate with character issues and a style often difficult to justify, even as Pence defends possible chinks in his own conservative armor.

Trump’s style and character issues are well-known: He’s bragged about past adultery, boasted about a love of money, declared corporate bankruptcy six times, used coarse language publicly, and was partial owner of a casino with a strip club in Atlantic City.

Pence appears squeaky clean by comparison: He’s been married to the same woman since 1985, has a staunch pro-life voting record, and has admitted publicly when he’s made political mistakes.

After losing one of his first congressional contests in 1990, Pence publicly repented for using negative tactics against his opponent. In an essay called “Confessions of a Negative Campaigner,” Pence made a declaration that seems almost unthinkable for the Trump team: “Negative campaigning is wrong.”

Pence wrote a campaign “ought to demonstrate the basic decency of a candidate. That means your First Amendment rights end at the tip of your opponent’s nose—even in the matter of political rhetoric.”

He began the article with a verse from the book of 1 Timothy: “It is a trustworthy statement … that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”

These days, Pence doesn’t talk much about Trump’s sins. Instead, he calls him a “good man” who would make “a great president.” Still, Pence has linked himself to a candidate with a far different campaign philosophy than his own—a dynamic that might prove a tall order for an evangelical who describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican—in that order.”

During an election cycle with a 70-year-old GOP nominee and a Democratic nominee turning 69 before Election Day, many voters are paying especially close attention to their younger counterparts: Pence and Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

In any election, it’s always prudent to ask: In the absence of a chief executive, how might his or her vice president govern? And what do the candidates’ other advisers tell us about their potential administrations?

FOR PENCE, 57, government service began in 2001 after Indiana voters elected him to the first of six terms in the U.S. House. Pence opposed same-sex marriage, opposed the No Child Left Behind Act, and supported a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

He also assailed Planned Parenthood.

In 2011, Pence proposed cutting all federal funding to the nation’s largest perfomer of abortion. In a speech to a pro-life group, he quoted from Proverbs 24: “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.”

Pence became governor of Indiana in 2013, and in March of this year, he signed a bill banning abortions in Indiana based on genetic abnormalities like Down syndrome. (A federal judge has blocked the law.)

Pence’s conservative credentials seemed rock solid—and his path to a presidential run looked realistic—until the governor faced an unexpected hammering last year.

In March 2015, Pence signed a religious freedom law designed to provide a legal framework for courts to decide how to handle lawsuits when citizens claimed their religious rights were being violated. It was similar to federal legislation President Bill Clinton signed in 1993 and to religious freedom laws in 19 other states.

The bill didn’t mention sexual orientation, but many proponents hoped it would offer a layer of protection for religious business owners who didn’t want to participate in gay weddings or other events that violated their consciences.

The backlash was apoplectic: Opponents of the law falsely claimed Christian business owners wanted an avenue to deny all services to gay customers.

Pence explained this wasn’t the case, but major corporations like NASCAR and Apple condemned the legislation. Celebrities expressed outrage. Hillary Clinton tweeted, “We shouldn’t discriminate against ppl bc of who they love.”

The president of the NCAA said the college sports organization—with its headquarters in Indianapolis—might reconsider its relationship with the state if lawmakers didn’t change the bill.

The ploy was similar to the NCAA’s current tactics in North Carolina, where the organization has announced plans to pull seven championship games scheduled in the basketball-loving state next year. The reason: North Carolina’s HB2 law—a bill requiring people in government buildings to use the bathrooms corresponding to their birth sex.

By late September, North Carolina’s Republican Gov. Pat McCrory—once considered a moderate by many—hadn’t backed down, despite months of excoriating criticism. But last year in Indiana, the conservative Pence blinked.

After a week of withering pressure, Pence signed an amendment to the bill. The governor said the new language clarified the law wouldn’t allow business owners to discriminate against gay customers. But proponents of the original bill said the amendment stripped the potential protections it was intended to provide.

Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation wrote the change amounted to “nothing less than a wholesale repeal … with respect to those who need religious liberty protections the most.” Attorneys from the Becket Fund agreed, and many social conservatives expressed dismay.

These days, Trump demurs on what he thinks about such business owners. In a phone interview, I asked Pence what he thinks: Should the baker, the photographer, the florist, or others be allowed to decline participating in a gay wedding or other events that violate their consciences?

Pence wouldn’t say.

The vice presidential candidate said he abhors discrimination and cherishes religious liberty, and when the two come in conflict, the courts should decide the outcome.

I asked whether he thought business owners could use the amended version of the Indiana law to protect their religious liberty in such cases. Pence said the courts would decide.

When I asked if he didn’t want to say whether he or Trump thought religious business owners should have a right to conscience exceptions in certain cases, Pence said, “We believe the courts are the proper purview for deciding.”

Some social conservatives are still stung by Pence’s actions last year, but others say the episode doesn’t erase 15 years of a reliably conservative record. Pro-life groups have hailed Pence’s candidacy.

Meanwhile, on a national level, religious liberty issues aren’t going away. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently released a report calling religious liberty “code” for bigotry and Christian supremacy.

Another issue that isn’t going away: refugees from the war-torn Middle East. Trump once proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States, but Pence said the current plan is to suspend immigration from countries or territories compromised by terrorism, regardless of religious affiliation.

(Trump’s campaign website still displays a December press release saying Trump “is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what’s going on.”)

Pence mentioned Clinton’s plan to increase the number of Syrian refugees coming into the country and said it was critical to protect the safety and security of the American people.

What about Christians targeted for extinction by ISIS or other terror groups?

Pence noted Trump’s concern over Christian genocide and said “extreme vetting would allow us to identify those individuals who are fleeing religious persecution from other parts of the world.” (He also noted the importance of creating safe zones in the Middle East.)

It’s unclear how long a new, extreme vetting process might extend the two- to three-year wait some refugees already face before entering the country, or whether persecuted Christians from those lands might look for other places to shelter.

WHEN IT COMES TO PROBLEMATIC RUNNING MATES, SEN. TIM KAINE has plenty of his own challenges.

Hillary Clinton tapped the former governor of Virginia for the vice presidential spot in July, a few weeks after the FBI called Clinton’s use of a personal email server to conduct classified government business while she was secretary of state “extremely careless,” but not criminal.

Clinton couldn’t bury ongoing questions about her reckless email system, her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, or reports that influence from Clinton Foundation donors led the Clinton State Department to thwart efforts to combat Boko Haram in Nigeria.

If Kaine, 58, seemed a little bland, it was just the dash of non-controversy the Clinton campaign likely thought it needed, along with a shot at reaching moderate voters in potential swing states like Virginia.

Kaine had riled some progressive groups in the past by suggesting government should loosen regulations on big banks. When he ran for governor of Virginia in 2005, Kaine declared he was pro-life and against same-sex marriage.

Most vestiges of conservatism faded when Kaine won election to the U.S. Senate in 2012. Though the Catholic senator says he’s personally opposed to abortion, he’s earned a 100 percent voting record from the pro-abortion group NARAL. He’s blasted GOP attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and condemned attempts to impose higher clinical standards on abortion centers.

But there’s one area where Kaine has bumped up against the Clinton campaign: the Hyde Amendment. While Clinton has called for repealing the 40-year-old prohibition on federal funding for most abortions, Kaine has said he supports the bipartisan ban.

The disconnect created confusion when Clinton’s campaign manager told CNN that Kaine had said he would support Clinton’s proposal to repeal Hyde. The vice presidential nominee quickly insisted, “I have been for the Hyde Amendment, and I have not changed my position on that.”

A spokesman for the Clinton campaign told The Wall Street Journal Kaine is “not personally for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment,” but is “committed to carrying out Secretary Clinton’s agenda.” (The Clinton campaign didn’t respond to WORLD’s request for an interview with Kaine.)

On other social issues, there’s no conflict. Kaine’s opposition to gay marriage evaporated in 2013, and he recently told a gathering at the Human Rights Campaign he thought Catholic opposition to gay marriage would change.

He based his prediction on a tortured exegesis of Genesis Chapter 1: Kaine said God’s declaration of the creation as “very good” can be viewed as a celebration of “the beautiful diversity of the human family.” (He didn’t comment on other verses in Genesis that teach God created humans “male and female” and instituted marriage between a man and a woman.)

The bishop of Kaine’s home diocese rejected such predictions. Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo of Richmond, Va., released a statement: “More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage and despite recent statements from the campaign trail, the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year-old teaching to the truth about what constitutes marriage remains unchanged and resolute.”

Despite the bishop’s rebuke, Kaine’s Catholicism could appeal to some Hispanic voters wary of Trump and perhaps impressed by Kaine’s 2013 support for an immigration reform bill and his command of Spanish. Kaine learned the language in the 1980s during a yearlong mission trip to Honduras, where he absorbed the Marxist-infused teachings of liberation theology.

By mid-September, a Wall Street Journal/NBC/Telemundo poll reported Clinton led Trump among likely Hispanic voters by 48 points. But while 65 percent of Hispanic voters said they supported Clinton (compared with Trump’s 17 percent), only 57 percent said they had a positive view of the Democratic nominee less than two months ahead of the election.

Trump’s team

Donald Trump has published lists of advisory committees on his website for a few months, but it’s unclear which ones would actually influence policy. His inner circle seems to be his children and a handful of Republican politicians possibly interested in a D.C. address. Here are a few of Trump’s team members:

Gov. Chris Christie After acrimonious exchanges during the GOP primary, the governor of New Jersey backed Trump in late February, days after Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., seemed to gain traction in a GOP debate. He met a rich reward: Trump named Christie chairman of his transition team, a key position tasked with tapping key advisers to find potential staffers. So far, the work has been mostly closed-door and tight-lipped.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani The former New York City mayor brings a national security face to Trump’s team, particularly for voters who remember his tireless response to the 9/11 attacks. Recently Giuliani has focused on promoting border security and has downplayed his former support for immigration reform.

Dr. Ben Carson Perhaps one of the more mystifying additions to Trump’s slate of advisers, the former neurosurgeon has proved a sometimes-uneven surrogate for Trump. He’s insisted he doesn’t want a spot in the White House, but Trump has said if he changes his mind there will be “a great place for him.”

Ivanka Trump Perhaps one of Trump’s secret weapons, his articulate and mostly coolheaded daughter impressed conventiongoers with her introduction of her father in Cleveland. Recently, she helped roll out Trump’s child care plan, a proposal some Republicans say the government can’t afford. —J.D.

Clinton’s crew

Hillary Clinton’s advisers include a mix of new faces and ones she’s known for decades. Vanity Fair recently described her team of advisers as an army of loyalists “authorized to speak but deliberately say nothing” in order to protect the candidate in a climate “like the fortified Western front.” Here’s a short list of soldiers:

President Bill Clinton The former president seems to relish his role back on the campaign trail, but how much would the two-term president influence his wife’s policy? Given Bill Clinton’s presidency under a Republican-controlled Congress, his wife likely would stray far from some of the fiscally—and even some socially—conservative policies her husband once advanced.

Huma Abedin One of Clinton’s most trusted aides and vice chairwoman of the campaign, Abedin has worked with Clinton since she began as a White House intern in 1996, and later became deputy chief of staff to Clinton at the State Department. She’s found herself at the heart of the email controversy dogging Clinton, but remains vaultlike at protecting information from public disclosure.

Gen. David Petraeus The architect of the troop surge in Iraq under President George W. Bush recently joined a group of national security advisers. It’s unclear whether he’d have a direct role in a Clinton administration after his own scandal with classified information, but his presence suggests Clinton is looking to maintain a hawkish stance on national security.

John Podesta The longtime Clinton friend (and onetime aide to both Bill Clinton and President Obama) serves as Clinton’s campaign chairman. For an idea of how he might influence policy, take a look at the Center for American Progress. Podesta founded the liberal think tank that advocates a strident pro-gay, pro-abortion agenda. —J.D.