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Vice President Mike Pence to appear for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers in downtown Spokane on Tuesday

FILE – From left, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the House Republican Conference, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif., House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of La., meet with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017. Pence will appear at a fundraiser for McMorris Rodgers in Spokane on Tuesday. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP)
By Kip Hill kiphillreporter@gmail.com

A campaign swing to the West will bring Vice President Mike Pence to downtown Spokane on Tuesday to stump for U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

The vice president is scheduled to appear Tuesday afternoon at the Spokane Convention Center at a late luncheon, where he will make remarks to a crowd of benefactors to the McMorris Rodgers campaign. It’ll mark the first visit to Spokane by a sitting vice president since Dick Cheney stopped at Fairchild Air Force Base in 2006.

Pence will travel to Spokane after a morning appearance in Bozeman for U.S. Senate candidate Matt Rosendale, according to the White House press office. Rosendale faces incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in the November election.

McMorris Rodgers faces Lisa Brown for Eastern Washington’s seat in Congress in November. She’s brought some conservative star power to town to back her candidacy, with Pence being the third ally of President Donald Trump to make an appearance in the district on her behalf. Rep. Devin Nunes of California and Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s counselor, have both stumped for the congresswoman in Spokane.

Brown locked up the endorsement of former President Barack Obama on Monday. In a statement issued on Twitter, Brown’s name was one of three Washington candidates among dozens of Democrats nationwide that Obama said he’d be supporting in November. The list also includes Kim Schrier, an Issaquah physician running against Republican Dino Rossi, and Carolyn Long of Vancouver, who’s running against Republican U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler.

Mayor David Condon will serve as master of ceremonies for the Pence event, which is scheduled to last from 2:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Protesters have said they will bring an inflatable effigy of the president as an infant, known as “Baby Trump,” to the event, a replica of one flown in London during the president’s visit to the U.K. this summer. Cynthia Hamilton, with Indivisible Washington, said the protest would occur downtown between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Conway’s visit in August drew 950 people to a private home south of Spokane. The campaign expects at least that many people at Tuesday’s event, with ticket prices beginning at $125.

Spokane police are urging motorists to avoid the area around the Spokane Convention Center from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday as there will be intermittent road closures and delays due to the visit.