A Mike Pence impersonator named Mike Hot-Pence raised more than $1,500 for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky on June 7 in Indianapolis.
Mike Hot-Pence is an impersonator who wears a suit jacket, tie and short shorts to collect money for causes related to LGBT rights, the environment, refugee support and women’s rights.
He spent time at an event June 7 on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis to celebrate the birthday of the former Indiana governor and current vice president’.
Participants were able to visit Monument Circle to take pictures with Mike Hot-Pence and express their support for Planned Parenthood in Indiana.
“Planned Parenthood is under attack, and on Mike Pence’s birthday our present to him is a strong showing of support for health care and for Planned Parenthood,” said Wanda Savala, the public affairs manager at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky, in a press release.
The group is an organization that works as the advocacy and political arm of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky.
They invited Mike Hot-Pence out to Indianapolis for the tongue-in-cheek celebration of the vice president’s birthday, said Ali Slocum, the group’s communication and marketing director.
Hot-Pence lives in New York City and has been raising money in Times Square since October. Since he started, he’s raised more than $15,000 for multiple causes.
At the event in Indianapolis, he raised $1,505 in an hour and a half, which is about 10 percent of his total earnings.
According to his Twitter page, it was his personal best.
“The money will go toward advocacy work to make sure that Indiana men and women have access to health care and retain their rights,” Slocum said.
Hot-Pence can typically be seen in New York’s Times Square and has accumulated more than 3,000 Twitter followers and 5,500 Facebook followers.
Slocum said hundreds of people came out to the event to support the cause and eat cupcakes provided by local Indianapolis bakery the Flying Cupcake.
After the event was broadcasted at the noon hour on Indianapolis news channels, people drove to Monument Circle just to donate during their lunch hours, many people from their car windows, Slocum said.
