We look back at 2024.

A historic presidential race.

Plus, an open governor's race and more.

From the television studios at WFYI, it's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending December 27th, 2024.

Indiana Week in Review is produced by WFYI in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by the Indy Chamber, working to unite business and community to maintain a strong economy and quality of life.

This week, we look back at the 2024 presidential race in which former President Donald Trump won a second term, winning the popular vote for the first time in his three runs for the white House.

Trump ended the campaign facing a different Democratic opponent than the one he faced to start the year.

President Joe Biden, after a disastrous debate performance, left the ticket, and within days, Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in as the Democratic nominee, sandwiching that campaign shakeup were two assassination attempts against Trump, the first of which in June, resulted in an injury to Trump's ear.

Ultimately, Trump won just about every battleground state and received a little over 2 million votes more nationwide than Harris.

What surprised you most about the 2024 presidential race?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week review panel.

Democrat Ann DeLaney Republican Mike O'Brien.

Oseye Boyd, editor in chief of Mirror Indy.

And Niki Kelly, editor in chief of the Indiana Capitol Chronicle.

I'm Indiana Public Broadcasting statehouse bureau chief Brandon Smith.

Mike OBrien, what surprised you most?

It's got to be Trump's margin coming in.

It's just it's a razor thin, razor thin, razor thin until it isn't.

He moves almost every demographic in his favor.

wins in an absolute landslide.

We were done by 10:00 or 11:00 that night, thinking it'd be maybe was weeks of recounts.

And, you know, we don't know.

We won't know the outcome for months.

I mean, that's that expectation being set and then it being just a walk has got to be the biggest, you know, the biggest surprise.

And coupled with Democrats just getting it wrong, just dead wrong.

The polling was garbage.

Although it always is.

Although apparently Harris's internal polling never had her winning.

Never had her win.

Never had her winning.

So maybe they knew, but not a lot of other polling seemed to indicate that it was going to be, like you said, the margin, that it.

Was just and just generally just getting it wrong, focus on the wrong issues, underestimating what what illegal immigration ranked with with voters, overestimating what you know, there was no put $240 million behind the transgender prisoners ad, and there was no response at all with $250 million.

Just putting to that just that ad in battleground in battleground states and just total with So, I mean, I think the presidential has got to be the biggest surprise.

And in Indiana, what that meant was what it meant in 16.

Everybody wins by 20.

Everybody's in.

Democrats don't win a single race in Indiana.

if I, I think I said this the show after the election, but if I told you throw the people out, the individuals who were running for office, the incumbent president oversees historic, historically high inflation.

His party loses pretty much across the board.

Right.

Isn't that kind of normal?

It is kind of normal.

But when you put that against take the put the people back in.

You put a convicted felon, misogynist, racist, everything else in there.

And you you know, I was surprised.

I really was surprised.

not that he necessarily carried Indiana.

I expected him to carry Indiana, of course, but not to carry Indiana by the margin he carried in 2016, because we had excellent candidates running, statewide in the legislature.

Yeah.

And they really were.

And the fact that it didn't it didn't show in the vote, it was very discouraging, as was the fact that the turnout was terrible.

Now, I know we restricted more than we did in 2020, the mail ins and the rest of that.

And it shows when when the turnout goes down.

But that's that's really an embarrassment.

You know, for the state.

And I was surprised by his margin here.

I really was.

Is that what surprises you the most Niki.

Yeah.

Obviously that was the key is is margin.

We all knew he was going to win Indiana.

and the bigger margin meant the higher margins for the other Republicans on the top of the ticket.

So, yeah, it went down exactly as expected in Indiana.

I do think, like Mike said, the margin and watching all the battleground states fall for him, I think was surprising to a lot of Democrats.

To me, I think they thought they were going to be a lot more competitive in those areas.

At the end of the day, though, if you think it's really, you know, you talk about illegal immigration was more influential than I think some people thought.

But I mean, was it Jimmy Carville said it, you know, God, nearly 30 years ago, it's the economy, stupid.

I mean, is that really is is it any more complicated than people didn't feel like the economy was good, so they're not going to vote for the party in power?

That's sure what it look like.

That's exactly what it look to be.

I think, Mike is right that Democrats banked on some issues that that people didn't care as much about.

I do think, abortion rights, they really thought women were going to come out in mass for Democrats about abortion.

And we didn't see that happen.

It hasn't happened.

since since, Dobbs happened.

So I don't know if they're going to keep on trying that beating that dead horse or we're going to move on to something else.

I don't know, but that's not the issue.

That's bringing people out to vote.

the economy again, if I'm worried about my pocketbook, as many people are, then I'm going to be worried about who's who the president is.

That's what it seemed to be.

My big surprise with that was that Biden dropped out and Harris stepped in.

That was my big surprise because I don't think anyone saw that one coming.

No, I would expect a Trump to win this war.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Soon.

Soon to be former U.S.

Senator Mike Braun won the open race to become Indiana's next governor in 2024.

Emerging from a crowded primary and then winning what ended up being a comfortable general election victory.

Six Republicans jumped into the gubernatorial primary, and while tens of millions of dollars were spent, Braun ultimately cruised to a nearly 20 point win over his next closest opponent, Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch.

Behind her were former Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers, Fort Wayne businessman Eric Dodon, Jamie Reitenour and in last place, former Attorney General Curtis Hill.

Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick was unopposed in the Democratic primary and while some polling showed a tight general election race, an outside group spent millions on both sides.

Braun defeated both McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater, who was making his second gubernatorial bid, Ann DeLaney, if Democrats couldn't break through in Indiana this year, is it possible in the foreseeable future?

You know, people said the same thing in the 1980s, when it had been a long, dry spell for Democrats, and we broke through and, and really, controlled for 20 years.

So I think what will happen here with this, you take Donald Trump because Donald Trump is the lame duck right now.

And I.

Mean, in theory.

In theory and in now he's responsible and he's made all these outrageous promises about what he's going to do.

And let's see what he delivers and what happens if he does deliver some of these promises.

What happens to the economy in the in the process of doing that?

And in Indiana in particular, you've had one party control for 20 years and you've had the educational system sink under that.

The weight of the one party control.

And you have you have the kinds of, corruption and all that come from from the arrogance of having unchecked power for 20 years.

They'll be things that'll bubble up with that.

And I think 2026 is going to be a good democratic year, I really do.

Is this just the new political reality of Indiana for the foreseeable future?

For the foreseeable future?

But I think what we're what what what we haven't experienced, I don't know what Grover Cleveland second term looked like, but it probably wasn't, you know, so we have a one term president and we have a post-Trump era coming.

and when you're pretend this wasn't consecutive term, you get about halfway through that term and the page is turning.

So who's to who's coming next?

So it matters what Republican how Republicans.

Re that process by the way.

And that process seems to start earlier and earlier and earlier might not even be halfway through.

He may he may get.

14 months, 16 months until we're in the midterms.

And now we're in that election.

It's gonna be a verdict on what happened in the first year and a half of the second term.

And then after the midterms, we start thinking about the presidential and who's coming next.

And there's no second Donald Trump.

You can you can mimic.

With you you know, you there's people I mean he is and he is trying to adopt.

He is the style back with let's try to adopt the style the MAGA brand.

But and you can you can do it on policy, but you can't do it on style.

Yeah.

You know, whether you love it or hate it.

Well, because there's a built in, there's a built in brand of Donald Trump that goes back decades totally in the public.

Consciousness since the 80s.

Right.

And, also, what is very important is how do Democrats react?

You know, we talked about, you know, there's not a there's I've never seen a party run on, on an issue like abortion more thoroughly and in a coordinated fashion, a well-funded, fast fashion and universal being on message.

I just didn't put the whole put the whole lot behind it.

And it's not.

It's it works.

So how do they.

Make it so here's the problem.

So that's what so how did Democrats react to this?

Do they do what Republicans did in 2012 and go hard the other direction instead of like, you know, the party at the time was like, I think we need to moderate and grow the tent and like, that's it, nap.

And, you know, we just we did grow the tent.

We just found new people, you know.

But but also that that but also what would that have happened if Donald Trump hadn't risen to the fore?

You know, if if you take Donald Trump, Donald Trump decides not to run for president, does the party go right.

Haley?

Is it.

Yeah.

It's it's it's a Jeb Bush governor.

Right.

You know, so all of that is is this, you know, this ten year Trump era as it comes to an end certainly influences the next one.

Yeah.

But who carries that mantle is is important.

And how Democrats react to what this loss is important.

So if you're Indiana Democrats where do you go next.

Do you do you write off.

Do you write off 2024 as listen, we had no you know, we had we couldn't control Donald Trump winning Indiana by nearly 20 points.

And, you know, as you said in the first topic, when the presidential candidate wins by 20, it doesn't.

Everything else follows.

Do you kind of write it off or do you have to go?

We need something different.

We need something different.

I wouldn't just give up and quit the fight, right?

I would definitely go back to the drawing board, figure out what that something different is.

I think Democrats need to get boots on the ground, find out the issues that are really at the heart of Hoosiers minds and what they want instead, and also, we've had several instances statewide where we've had people, young people who tried to be a part of the Democratic Party who are told, who are shunned and turned away, that can't keep happening when you have new life, new blood, trying to come in and actually energize the party, you can't turn them away.

We have new candidates.

That's not that's not a fair.

Oh, but I mean, if you I mean, if you show up to the Indiana.

You know, the mayor of.

Sure should try to get you.

Look at the mayor of Bloomington.

There are young.

People are of people who tried to run and were kicked off because that's what challenges the.

Courts in Marion County.

Two different.

Yeah, they're 2 or 3 or four.

Right.

That's that's the curve of of of a party.

But it's.

Right.

But I think that has a ripple of.

We're talking about the Democratic Party and the way it looks and how you encourage people to want to be a part of the process.

If I feel like I'm going to be turned away, I'm not going to keep trying.

I could I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on Indiana history, but it seems to me just thinking about it, I'm not sure Democrats have won a truly have run a truly progressive candidate for statewide office, governor or senator since Birch by like truly progressive it's been moderates, moderates, moderates, conservative Democrats all the way down because.

Republicans.

Form Republicans in some ways is is it time to at least try moving in the direction to go harder, left to what Mike sort of just talked about, is it time to try?

I yeah, I don't know.

I, I'm sorry.

We got very distracted from the governor's race.

I, we talked a lot about Trump during talk about the governor's race.

So I was prepared for a different direction, which was looking also at how the libertarian came in way lower than we thought he would.

And, in the governor's race.

And that also helped Mike Braun to get an even larger, you know, win.

But yeah, I mean, Democrats have to try something new, that's for sure.

But, you know, that's going to be an internal party fight there.

Let me say on the libertarian for just second, because this is interesting to me.

And I think this is the sort of audience who watches this show that it might be interesting to, which is the future of the Libertarian Party in Indiana, because they had real momentum in 2020.

But how much of that, especially with this year's results, turned out to maybe just be dissatisfaction with the individual Republican gubernatorial candidate?

I think it was basically all that.

Yeah.

and we definitely see that settled.

Back down to earth.

Yep.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, this year's gubernatorial ticket featured an unusual wrinkle.

The Republican nominee for lieutenant governor wasn't the gubernatorial nominee's choice.

Self-proclaimed Christian nationalist Micah Beckwith spent a year running for lieutenant governor, plainly stating that he didn't care who the nominee for governor would be.

Beckwith, a pastor, said repeatedly he wanted to be a check on the administration advocating for ultra conservative views, and that swayed enough Indiana Republican Party convention delegates as Beckwith edged out gubernatorial nominee Mike Braun's pick for the role.

State lawmaker Julie Maguire.

Oseye, does the Beckwith upset that the convention changed the model going forward for how lieutenant governor candidates are chosen in Indiana?

I don't know that it will right now, but it could.

It has set a precedent for sure.

The president has been set.

I think we'll have to see how this plays out, how the term the next four years play out, because I think if, he is a thorn in, my Mike Brown side, then there might be some rules visited and refigured and rewritten to make it so that this can't happen again.

But there are people in the Republican delegates who actually they chose they chose Beckwith.

Right.

So there is an appetite for this to happen again.

So I think we'll have to see how it plays out.

I'm interested to watch.

Whether they change the rules for the literal rules for how a candidate is chosen.

I'm not sure they'll maybe do that, but do you think this changes the way people are people going to start running for lieutenant governor on their own, as opposed to waiting for whoever?

The governor candidate.

I think more likely is that in the primary, governors will name their lieutenant governor.

You know, they're hopeful earlier so that they can.

Start doing.

That, working that a little more.

I mean, even if you would given another month, you know, you don't have to say like, we're you're not assuming you're going to win, but you're just going to say, this is who I want to be, my lieutenant governor candidate.

If I win, they can start putting the work in.

So they're not so far behind someone else.

But I think the thing you just brought up is the pitfall of that strategy, which is if you were a candidate.

Well, well, no, but if you're a candidate who does that, are people going to go, well, that's awfully, presumptuous of you to be saying, oh.

It also takes away the ability to unify the party behind the second and the second runner, or the runner up, and the governor together as a as a ticket.

So I think it's a problem.

yes.

They can start running because delegates are elected, okay.

They are elected.

And, you can mobilize if you have a good ground, grassroots organizing.

Clearly, Micah Beckwith did.

And he did.

And it's going to be a thorn.

It's going to be a thorn in the side because it's he is so far to the right and with his the only true religion and and all of that, he will be to he's already stepped on toes, several times.

And he hasn't even assumed the office yet.

And then on top of that, you see that the governor's clawing back all things that are not statutorily delegated to the lieutenant governor because he's worried about that, too.

So it's going to be an interesting thing, because I don't see Mike Braun running, for reelection.

So they're going to be faced with a, a Todd Rokita, Michael Beck with Micah Beckwith, Micah.

Mike, excuse me, Micah Beckwith primary and who knows what will happen with that.

Maybe Curtis Hill will get into.

That would be the three way, Maybe Morales.

that would be even better.

does this change the way people run for lieutenant governor in Indiana?

I think I don't think by rule no.

Five by law, but but but when.

People start taking the next step.

And we've seen that before, and there was there were rumors.

There were rumors for a long, long time that who was Braun going to, you know, Greg Pence was in that mix with Suzanne Crouch, and there were just rumors that that was going to be a ticket when he announced he wasn't running again.

But importantly.

Were they were rumors there was a price to somebody going out and doing the work that Beckwith was doing for a year.

No, that's right.

But, there's a lot of value in that.

And going and then you're electing that ticket, you know, in the historic nature of, of this election, we had, you know, we only had like 12% turnout in the primary.

We had Mike Braun who got 40% of the vote.

We have a lieutenant governor who's one step away from being governor, who was elected by about 900 people.

just put in that position by about 900 people.

I mean, the number of Hoosiers that actually participated in the election of this administration is not not huge, not huge.

you know, so that's worth remembering when when you're running for these offices and, and how you're doing it.

Yeah.

Well, Republican leaders said before the start of the 2024 legislative session they wanted it to be a quiet one, focused on small tweaks to existing policies.

Yet some of their priorities were anything but, including a measure that will hold back thousands of third grade students and legislation involving one of the most controversial geopolitical conflicts in memory.

One of the House GOP's top priorities was banning anti-Semitism in higher education.

The two chambers grappled with the issue up to nearly the end of session, ultimately devising a compromise that included a definition from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, but did not reference its examples.

Some of which conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

Governor Eric Holcomb vetoed that bill and instead issued an executive order that did reference the IHRAs definition and examples.

Lawmakers also tried to address Indiana students poor literacy scores and potential cuts to state support for families with medically complex children, though on the latter issue, Republicans ultimately left it up to the state agency to resolve.

Niki, is there any such thing as a quiet session anymore?

I still actually think it was one of the quieter sessions in terms of what I've covered over 25 years.

I mean, something will always fill up the vacuum, right?

There's always a couple of things.

They're going to rise to the top and and people are going to talk about and obviously the the retention bill was one of them.

You know, the Israel fight was one of them.

But overall, you know, it was a quieter session with a lot of bills that of course, we wrote about them, but they weren't wholesale overhauls.

I think there were small tweaks.

Do you think that's... Now we're coming up to a budget session where it's not going to be quiet.

Nobody thinks it's going to be quiet.

It shouldn't be quiet.

But for those off year, the end of those non budget sessions is the thing that Republican legislative leaders wanted.

That Niki said largely played out the idea of quiet session, small changes to things we're already working on.

Is that good for Indiana's?

That would Indiana deserves out of a short session.

I think deserves not quite the right word, but I do think after you have a budget year, when you have a year where it's really a lot happening, you're exhausted.

You know, we're exhausted as journalists who are reporting on it, lawmakers are exhausted, the public is exhausted.

So it's kind of good when you kind of have just were tweaking things and we're figuring things out.

But at the same time they're there to do a job.

And so if things rise up to the occasion of making it be drama and a big deal, the conflict it has to be has to play out.

We have to play out.

We can't we can't change that.

But I think in some ways we do deserve a break.

Mike as a lobbyist, when you're preparing clients, what is it?

What is that difference between preparing clients for a short, quiet session and a budget session like the one we're about to have?

Yeah, you just managing expectations.

We had there was a major change in alcohol policy that wouldn't matter to the public last session.

It was a big deal.

The alcohol industry on the wholesale industry, and that issue was just right.

Right.

It would have been worked, worked on for two years.

Lawmakers had been consulted on it and it was just ready, you know, and so you you do try to consult clients to go come in and do the short session.

This is a great opportunity for all that because all these people are in town.

They're in two and a half months is not a short amount of time to sit still in the state House.

and so it's a it is a good opportunity to start testing issues, start educating lawmakers on bigger, more complex topics that they probably aren't ready for a two week, three week committee process window to get get a bill moving.

but they still did.

They still produce 1200 bills.

They still pass 150 of them.

Yeah.

now, those may not be monumental things that the public is paying attention to, but, you know, they're still they're still doing a lot.

Speaker Houston, you know, gotta love him has been trying to shorten the window.

He's been trying to stop, slow things, slow the volume of things is happening.

And he's done that by delaying the start a session.

Or now they're doing the one day a week session for the first, for the first month to focus on the committees.

The consequence for guys like me who are working in that building, you go to committee on Wednesday or committee days on a Wednesday.

There could be 85 bills on the calendar and you're like, I mean, it doesn't change.

It shorten the window, doesn't change the amount of stuff that gets done.

It just means more stuff.

It's getting done in a shorter, smaller window.

and maybe not well.

Maybe in a more haphazard fashion.

it is the idea of the quieter non budget session a positive thing overall where, where we aren't trying to do all of these.

If it keeps us away from a lot of the social issues that are so divisive, that would be a positive thing.

That would be a positive thing.

But there are things they're going to have to deal with.

And, you know, if if the federal government comes in with both guns blazing and goes after Medicaid and goes after other things that are important, we're going to have to deal with it.

You're going to have to deal with it whether you want quiet or not.

Or you could be like the Ohio Legislature, where someone authored a bill to make it a felony to plant a flag in the middle of the Ohio State University Stadium.

I don't yeah, really.

Yeah.

But really the things you really have to respond to.

All right.

Finally, as you look back at 2024, who is your biggest winner in the Hoosier political scene?

We'll start with Ann DeLaney, who and why?

Why?

I would say the Christian Nationalists, because now they have somebody a heartbeat away from the governor.

And that's giving legitimacy to what I think is a really poorly disguised notions that were common with the Klux Klan years ago.

So I think they're the big winners.

Who's your big winner and why?

Mike Braun, six way primary.

We voted for most expensive primary in Indiana gubernatorial history, open seat quality candidates.

He wasn't running against five nobodies, no.

And he came out who.

Came out easily.

I mean, coasted to that victory.

Biggest winner.

Well, I would say Micah Beckwith.

I think what he's done is remarkable.

he campaigned for a very long time and he got what he wanted.

So he is now the lieutenant governor.

So I think that's a pretty big deal.

Yeah, I agree that was that was my answer to I might come back with is my answer.

I mean, I'd like to say Curt Cignetti but that's not political.

So I mean, I think Mike Braun obviously, and yeah, it was a big year and he really didn't end up having to sweat it much.

And the worst for 2024, Mike O'Brien.

And the Democrats.

I mean, they haven't done a better job to their credit.

They haven't done a better job in some 20 years, 20 plus years of recruiting candidates.

Finding those candidates.

Being on message and doing it all.

And it's just and there's a lot of soul searching if you're sit on that side of the aisle.

No, I don't know.

I hate to do it, but I agree with Mike.

Yeah.

And yeah, some of it out of their control, a lot of it out of their control.

Yeah.

We should really talk about these beforehand because I don't want to say the same thing.

So just to be creative, I'm going to say a lot of these women who came forward with these sexual harassment allegations because we came forward and there's a lot of hubbub, but yet nothing has really changed.

Yeah, I have that that was kind of my answer to it, which is slamming the Democrats again, not that it's unique to one political party over the other, but in Indiana lately we've seen it in the Indiana Democratic Party.

Well, I was going to say Democrats, but now I'm I don't know, because I don't want to be the say what everyone else is saying.

Yes.

All right.

Well, that is that is Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel is Democrat Ann DeLaney.

Republican Mike O'Brien, Oseye Boyd of Mirror Indy and Niki Kelly of the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

You can find Indiana Weekend Reviews podcasts and episodes at wfyi.org/iwre or on the PBS video app.

I'm Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Broadcasting.

Have a happy holiday season and join us next time, because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indiana Weekend Review is produced by Wfyi in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.

Additional support is provided by the Indy Chamber, Working to unite business and community to maintain a strong economy and quality of life.