Cleveland (CNN)Mike Pence argued in 1997 that "day-care kids get the short end of the emotional stick" and that households with two working parents lead to "stunted emotional growth."
The Indiana governor and Republican vice presidential candidate condemned what he called "the big lie that 'Mom doesn't matter'" in a letter to the editor of The Indianapolis Star.
"For years, we have gotten the message from the mouthpieces of the popular culture that you can have it all, career, kids and a two-car garage. The numbers in this federally funded study argue that the converse is true," Pence wrote.
"Sure, you can have it all, but your day-care kids get the short end of the emotional stick."
CNN has asked Pence's campaign whether he still believes the case he made in 1997, but his campaign has not yet responded.
It's another example of Pence's social conservatism. A born-again Christian, Pence has long been a strident opponent of abortion rights and same-sex marriage. He wrote in 1999 that Disney's movie "Mulan" was liberal propaganda as he argued against women in military combat roles.
That social conservatism could help ease lingering concerns about Trump within the GOP -- but it also makes Pence's past statements a major target for Democrats seeking to portray him as extreme.
Pence's 1997 letter calls for the same household arrangement as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pushed in an interview with ABC News in 1994.
"I think that putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing. If you're in business for yourself, I really think it's a bad idea. I think that was the single greatest cause of what happened to my marriage with Ivana," Trump said, discussing his divorce with his first wife.
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