A second Republican candidate for Mississippi governor has said he will not meet alone with a woman who is not his wife.
The former Mississippi supreme court Justice Bill Waller Jr says he tries to have at least one staff person with him in both professional and social settings when a woman is present, including when he meets with a female colleague on the court.
“I just think it’s common sense,” Waller said in a campaign video.
“In this day and time, I think that appearances are important, I think transparency is important, and people need to have comfort of what’s going on in government between employees and people,” he added.
Last week another Republican gubernatorial candidate, state congressman Robert Foster, said that he would not allow a female reporter to join his campaign unless she brought a male colleague.
A campaign spokesman for Waller said the candidate follows the rule because he “believes this is respectful to his wife”.
The practice follows an example set by the evangelical preacher Billy Graham but has become known as the “Pence rule” after Vice-President Mike Pence.
In March Karen Pence revealed to the Washington Post that her husband follows the rule.
When news of Foster’s clash with a journalist broke, it created national headlines. Foster denied the practice was sexist, arguing that his stand was about avoiding “any situation that may evoke suspicion of compromise of our marriage”.
The reporter who Foster said he chose not to be alone with was Mississippi Today’s Larrison Campbell, who on Monday posted a video on Twitter of Waller confirming his adherence.
A third Republican candidate in the Mississippi governor’s race, Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves, has declined to comment on his attitude toward the practice.
But the leading Democrat in the field, the attorney general, Jim Hood, said in a statement that “to even be having this conversation is ridiculous”.
“If I couldn’t meet with women alone to discuss issues important to them and to Mississippi, I wouldn’t be able to do my job,” Hood said.
“As governor, women will play an important role in my administration. I will move to pass an equal pay law for women; continue to fight domestic violence against women; and provide economic opportunities in business and industry for women. And I will do all these things while meeting with women – alone if necessary – to hear their voices and champion their causes.”
