If Mike Pence decides to run for president, he could enter the race with a big advantage from a very important place: Koch World.

The Indiana governor is getting a closer look as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, and there’s a growing sense among GOP operatives that he has a leg up over other contenders when it comes to winning the favor of the political network fronted by the billionaire conservative megadonors Charles and David Koch.

Story Continued Below

A number of Pence’s former staffers from his days in Congress have assumed major roles in the brothers’ corporate and political spheres. And Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs’ top political group, has been holding up Pence’s work in Indiana as emblematic of a conservative reform agenda they’re trying to take nationwide.

( Also on POLITICO: Dems paint GOP as shutdown party)

Pence will have an opportunity to make an impression Friday, when he addresses a national summit of Americans for Prosperity activists in Dallas. The AFP event runs through Saturday and will also feature appearances by GOP potential White House hopefuls Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.

Pence, whose office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, has had preliminary discussions about exploring a presidential run. But his moves towards a campaign have been cautious relative to other prospective candidates who are further along in their preparations, and who are courting the Kochs’ deep-pocketed political operation ahead of an election in which billions will be spent trying to influence the outcome.

An alignment between the Kochs and Pence could be of great benefit to both headed into 2016. It dovetails with a concerted move by the Kochs’ allies to mold the brothers’ political vision into a strategy intended to win elections and policy debates, rather than merely wage quixotic campaigns at the margins of wonky debates.

( Also on POLITICO: Exclusive: GOP poll of women: Party 'stuck in past')

Pence may just be among the best — or, at least, the more electable — messengers for this new Koch brand in a field of prospective candidates who fit some portions of the brothers’ political bent but not others.

For Pence, Koch World offers entrée and credibility with major donors whose views on social issues skew less conservative than his own, and who don’t know him as well as they know some of the other potential hopefuls. It would be a huge psychic boost if he were perceived to have even unofficial support from a vast network of advocacy groups and companies that spent more than $400 million in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election and is among the most robust forces in politics today.

“Indiana is one big free market, [and] much like Koch Industries, Mike Pence … picks the right fights,” said Kellyanne Conway, a Republican strategist who has polled for Pence and at least one Koch-backed group. “He doesn’t pick a fight for fighting’s sake, but he engages on the front lines when it’s a matter of principle or when something of great consequence is on the line,” said Conway, who also has appeared at Americans for Prosperity events.

A former talk show host who led a crusade to defund Planned Parenthood in the House, Pence has worked to spotlight the fiscal issues that animate the Kochs’ political giving. People close to the brothers say he first earned their network’s admiration during the George W. Bush years, when he opposed what he deemed Big Government policies backed by his own party, including No Child Left Behind and a Medicare expansion, and repeatedly warned that the GOP was veering off course.

( QUIZ: How well do you know the Koch brothers?)

“There’s ideological alignment between those two universes,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Texas GOP consultant who was hired years ago to work as press secretary for former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) by Marc Short, who was then her chief of staff. Short went on to become Pence’s chief of staff in late 2008 and now runs the Kochs’ political umbrella group Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. “They wouldn’t have plucked Marc out of that world if they didn’t have confidence in not only Marc, but also Pence, who occupies a unique place in conservative politics right now,” said Mackowiak, who considers Short a mentor and still talks to him.

Corporate spokesmen for the Koch brothers declined to comment for this story. The Kochs and the donors in their network have relationships with a number of prospective 2016 GOP contenders, including, most notably, Paul and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the 2012 vice presidential nominee for the Republicans, has also had a relationship with the Kochs. And David Koch invited New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to one of the brothers’ secretive donor seminars in 2011, introducing him there as “ a true political hero,” and teasing “someday we might see him on a larger stage where, God knows, he is desperately needed.”

Conway stressed that a number of Republicans in the loosely formed 2016 field could be good fits with Koch World, and that Pence is one of many. The Koch brothers also are not always equally enamored of the same candidates. While David Koch urged Christie to run in 2012, Charles Koch is said to have bonded with Rand Paul over a shared leeriness of military intervention abroad — making any discernible clues about the organization’s leanings all the more noteworthy.

( PHOTOS: Republicans, 2016 contenders)

The Kochs and their donors could play a key role in sorting through the GOP field and should expect to be courted heavily during the early jockeying, asserted Minnesota media billionaire Stan Hubbard, who attends the Koch donor summits and contributes to AFP.

“The Kochs, of course they’d be important,” he said. “If I were running, I’d love to have the Kochs’ backing. Wouldn’t you?”

While in Congress, Pence was invited to address at least one of the seminars the Kochs hold twice a year for elite megadonors. And, as governor, he endeared himself even more to Koch allies by successfully pushing for aggressive tax cuts even after initial objections from fellow Republicans in the state Legislature. His willingness to jet to Dallas for only a few hours to talk to AFP activists in a breakout panel about his tax-slashing record in Indiana hints at the clout of the Koch operation.

Follow @politico