(Music) We look back at the race for Indiana Governor.

Mike Braun emerges from a crowded Republican field, a surprise for lieutenant governor and more on this special episode of Indiana Week in Review.

Indiana Week in Review is made possible by the supporters of Indiana public Broadcasting stations.

The weekend, May 10th, 2024, US Senator Mike Braun easily won the crowded Republican primary for governor, with the Associated Press calling the race for Braun.

Just as the final polls closed in the state, Braun's final margin of victory was about 18 points, even as his opponents were a formidable group, some of whom spent millions in a race that went negative over the last several weeks.

Braun says some of his opponents already reached out to congratulate him.

You have thick skin to get through it and then you have to be very forgiving and don't hold any grudges if you're going to actually get something done.

Part of Braun's message is informed by his service in the U.S. Senate, where he railed against government spending.

And I think it's going to be up to the states to show how we get this country back to where the founders intended to be.Ffreedom and opportunity, the two most important things.

Braun will face off in November against Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater.

Mike OBrien did anything about these results surprise you?

In the end, the easy analysis stuff I've been saying for three weeks is usually the right one.

And the analysis on this one for a very long time was Mike Braun had a very big lead.

He had money to back that lead and ran a disciplined campaign.

The only thing he could do it was ruin it for himself, really, in hindsight.

And he didn't do that.

He ran a he ran a disciplined campaign.

He stayed on message.

They didn't get distracted.

and.

Had the Trump endorsement.

And had the Trump endorsement.

That's still I mean he won three one.

You know, I mean, there was a question this week whether Republicans should be concerned that Nikki Haley won 24% of the vote.

The answer is not really because they still showed up for the Republican primary.

So I don't think there's any indication that that that there's less support for Trump and Mike Braun certainly benefit from that.

I think, you know that.

And now he's saying the right thing.

And what just we just said, you know, this was a historic campaign for Republicans.

We had six candidates spent $40 million.

And the outcome pretty much stayed what it would have been if the primary were on.

You know, May 7th, 2023. but, and now he's saying, all right, let's, let's get together and get this done in November.

And that's what we're going to do.

Are you surprised Braun won quite so easily?

I'm surprised that Braun didn't win bigger, to tell you the truth.

I mean, he had Trump's endorsement.

He was Trump with 3 or 4 other Really credible candidates.

He he spent an incredible amount of money.

He was completely well known.

There were no surprises.

Everybody knew who Mike Braun was.

And 60% of the Republican primary voters voted against him.

That is surprising because if Trump is as powerful as you seem to think, he still is in the general electorate, it makes it.

That makes a difference.

The things that were said in those primary contests, whether it was for governor or for Congress.

I mean, ten years ago, they would have been shocking, calling people liars and tools of the enemies of the country and the things that were said are incredible.

And Mike.

That's true of America.

Yeah, that's the that's true.

Thanks to Trump.

That's the way we've deteriorated over the years.

There's no question about that.

But still he was a known quantity.

He was well-financed.

He did run a disciplined campaign because he said nothing.

I mean, he railed against Biden.

He embraced Trump is wonderful and, demagogue about the border.

And that's about all he did.

And yet 60% of the Republican primary voters rejected him.

I want to ask about the bottom end of the primary results for governor.

Curtis coming in, it looks like sixth out of sixth out of six being beaten by a few thousand votes, it looks like by Jamie Ritenour, who quite frankly, a few months ago, nobody had really heard of, outside of her very, you know, her circle.

Is this the end of Curtis Hill's statewide political career?

Yeah, I would think so.

I mean, he's tried multiple times since then.

He tried in the caucus up for Jackie Walorski seat when she unfortunately passed.

That didn't work.

Now he's tried this dead last.

I mean, getting beat by a complete unknown.

you know, he he doesn't.

Yeah.

Yeah, he lost the convention.

I mean, he's three for three lately, and it might be time for him to just find a lawyer job.

I never thought of that until he lost an election, a caucus and a convention.

And so forth.

As you look at these results, it feels like, I don't know that we're going to hear from any of the other five candidates much anymore.

I mean, Suzanne Crouch, at her age, is probably a political you probably said retirement makes sense for for at least something outside of elected office.

Brad Chambers was a political newcomer.

Probably just goes back to the private sector.

Eric Dodon, kind of.

Maybe the same thing is, is Dodon the only one you could see maybe trying to be involved in some other way?

And Jamie.

Yeah, because she's still a newcomer.

Yeah.

She's gotten she's had some name recognition now.

So there's an opportunity to try again.

Yeah.

Right.

So I feel like she could come back.

Definitely.

maybe not for governor, but another.

Another office.

Because now her name is getting out there.

She's more known than what she once was because no one knew.

Her before the week ending June 21st, 2024.

Self-proclaimed Christian nationalist Michael Beckwith scored a stunning upset to become the Indiana Republican Party's nominee for lieutenant governor.

Beckwith defeated gubernatorial nominee Mike Braun's pick for running mate at the state GOP convention, in what Braun is calling a bump in the road.

Braun likened having a running mate who wasn't his first choice to dealing with feisty employees or customers in his business.

And he says it's clear that he's in charge.

My running mate can say whatever he wants.

Yeah, if it doesn't make sense, if it doesn't resonate.

Remember, I'm going to be the governor.

Beckwith says he looks forward to working with Braun.

He says he's not going to be divisive or a flame thrower.

I want to be a unifier.

I want to extend an olive branch.

I want to make sure that, you know, people are that are heard.

I think the conservative movement, the grass roots movement that I'm a part of.

I believe they feel unheard.

Beckwith built his campaign on the idea of being a check and balance to the governor.

He beat state lawmaker Julie Maguire for the nomination by 63 votes out of more than 1700 cast.

And does Beckwith nomination create an opening for Democrats?

I think it absolutely does.

I mean, it shows how out of touch with voters the Republican Party is.

The Indiana Choice Coalition just did a poll, and not only did people repudiate the near-total ban, the Republicans have imposed, but they want a ballot initiative by almost 80% of the voters.

They want a ballot initiative which Republicans are denying them.

When you look at this, and I urge everybody to go to the Indiana Historical Society exhibit about the Klu Klux Klan, its 100 year anniversary since the Klan elected the Republican governor, Ed Jackson.

And when you listen to the rhetoric and it's posted on the walls there of what the Klan was saying in the 1920s denigrating immigrants, trying to restrict academic freedom, trying to tell everybody that they had to be Christian.

You know, the only thing they've changed in this is taking it from white nationalists to Christian nationalists, but it's the same demographic.

When you look at the rhetoric, when you look at the fact that they say the Democrats who disagree with them are Marxist and they're there and they hate the country, and all of the really hateful demagoguery that the Klan indulged in in the 1920s.

There is no Whitworth of difference between what they're saying in 2024 as Republican statewide candidates and what the Klan was saying in the 1924 election.

And that should be frightening.

The only difference between the two is the statewide candidates in 2024 don't wear sheets and don't burn crosses, but otherwise, the rhetoric is exactly the same.

And that is not what Hoosiers want.

I really regret suggesting to Ann and Ed Delaney that they read a book about the 1920.

Four.

Wish I had.

That is a good book.

Great book though.

Braun, obviously in the immediate aftermath, was spinning the line.

I'm the one in charge.

I'm going to be the governor.

He can say and do what he wants, but I'm the one in control here.

Is he the one in charge and in control?

Well, we don't.

We've never elected a governor because of the the running mate.

You know, I mean, the the ticket.

Yeah.

I mean, to bring it bring us some some profile and it matters to some people, but largely we're electing we're we're electing the governor and this is their running mate.

And in this case, it didn't work.

So we're on plan B. and I think I think the convention goers, I mean, I was, I was helping in kind of the days leading up to the convention just kind of work through lists of uncommitted delegates, people, you know, I knew and, and a lot of those people you could tell in the conversation on the floor was a lot of people were waiting to just kind of hear from them both and to his credit, Mike Braun got up and nominated Julie McGuire.

He did exactly what he needed to do, which was make it very clear that this is the person that he wanted, and didn't, like, try to hedge or, you know, have it both ways, not really know what the outcome was going to be.

Although in the days.

But Mike, in the days but in the days leading up there was a lot of well, if Michael wins, that would be great too.

So was there hedging?

Maybe not at not there.

Not know that when he was talking to these?

No, not before they went to went to vote.

So to his credit he did it.

He needed to do it.

Michael brought a lot of energy and a lot of people that I talked to with the delegates leading up to that said, yeah, now I understand you have like Mike Braun.

I know that he wants Julie, but man, I've known Mike a long time.

He's like, I don't really know what I'm going to do.

There were a lot of those kind of conversations because this is like, how did you go when the when the primary before?

Well, he spent like a decade and a half meeting everybody that was in the room, you know, and that's and that's a very similar dynamic here.

Are we about if Micah Backwith, if Mike Braun wins and then Micah Beckwith becomes lieutenant governor?

Are we about to see the role of the liutenant governor in Indiana change significantly?

We're seeing a lot of things change, I think significantly.

I know on paper this is the way things can work.

You can work the delegation, you can develop those, forge those relationships, and you can come from nowhere and win.

But this is not the way it works in my memory.

And I mean, it was always the the, you know, the Bowen-Orr ticket.

It was always the then the Orr-Muttz ticket, the Mutz-Goldsmith.

I mean, you go right down the line, people are added as running mates to be additive to plug a gap, or to bring geographic representation, or to bring gender balance or to bring business smarts.

If somebody if the other half of the ticket is spent a career in government, for instance, and people traditionally deferred to.

I mean, that's just again, I know we could find examples and exceptions, but this is a dramatic departure.

Niki, ultimately, what do you think?

Beckwith on The Ticket will end up changing the outcome?

Oh, I don't know.

I certainly think it will end up changing the Braun campaign.

I think he's pushing some issues that they're going to have to face.

Like, for instance, you know, and that's one thing that when I talked to a bunch of delegates this week, they said that Micah Beckwith was talking to them about things they cared about, not about economic development or growing the economy.

They wanted to know, what are you doing to help my area?

How are you going to protect farmland?

How about these property taxes?

And he is discussing those things.

And to be fair, Mike Braun isn't discussing those things, so maybe he'll push him that way a little more.

In terms of the question you asked about seeing Lieutenant Governor duties change, I've heard some sort of chatter in the background.

I think that would be hugely kneejerk and reactive.

If a super majority Republican, you know, legislature suddenly removed a bunch of duties from, you know, from an elected position and that that would not go down well.

The actions that he did that was pretty egregious.

The week ending October 25th, 2024, Indiana's three candidates for governor met on a debate stage for the final time this election cycle, highlighting their different visions for the state.

Republican Mike Braun, Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater addressed many of the same issues they've discussed before, including property taxes, cannabis and abortion.

But they also tread new ground on issues such as labor unions, cutting government jobs and gun regulations.

On that last topic, McCormick highlighted a frequent target Braun's running mate, Micah Beckwith, whom McCormick says is too extreme for Indiana.

He also said he wants his guns untraceable and unregistered, and that is just scary.

Braun pushed back, arguing.

He has called for strengthening Indiana's red flag law.

That law allows law enforcement to temporarily take away someone's firearms if they're a danger to themselves or others.

While she constantly defaults to something other than what we're talking about, who's going to be leading the state and my record on all these issues are clear.

Rainwater sought to stand apart from both his opponents and on the gun question that meant opposing red flag laws, Because we're that close...to our government telling us that because we go to this church or remember that organization, that we have a mental defect and therefore they need to take our guns.

Election day is November 5th.

Chris Mitcham, who had the best performance last night?

I pride myself on being an equal opportunity praiser and criticizer.

So I will sit here and say, I thought Jennifer McCormick had a really good night.

I thought she looked really, composed compared to the other debates.

She had a really good balance between policy and attacks and kind of moving her policy in with different attacks.

And I certainly was, I would say, more of a two on one against Braun this time compared to the other ones.

And I think you could probably expect that with the amount of, kind of ads that have been going towards Rainwater from the Republican Party.

But, credit to Braun though, I think with a two on one, he did stay above board a lot of the time, despite a lot of attacks.

I think trying to drag him down, the only times he did was when the other two were kind of ganging up on him, so I think that was a good sign of him trying to stay above board, kind of focusing on the kitchen table issues that has gotten his campaign to where it is today that I think, a lot of fellow Hoosiers, relate with.

So now you say nice things about Mike Braun.

That's kind of hard.

When you have the best performances.

Obviously, Jennifer McCormick had the best performance.

Mike Braun was going through the motions.

That's all he was doing.

You know, he bought himself a Senate seat.

He wants to buy himself a governor seat.

And, you know, it's really interesting to me is he wants to keep all this distance between him and Beckwith.

He's going to be the oldest elected governor we have had.

And we have been unfortunate enough to lose Frank O'Bannon while in the governor's office.

So Jennifer McCormick is right.

Micah Beckwith is a heartbeat away.

And on top of that, Mike Braun has shown a predeliction, or at least a tendency not to serve out.

I mean, he left his legislative position in the middle of his term, and he served only one term as senator.

So, you know, you've got this.

I think what really expressed it best in this is you've got a contrast here between somebody who's, you know, and I won't I know the common sense term was a little overused, but it is common sense versus the extreme.

I thought the ad that Jennifer McCormick has on with the Republican sitting on the back of his pickup truck, saying, 20 years of this extremism is enough.

I'm voting as a proud Republican.

I'm voting for Jennifer McCormick.

Because when you listen to this stuff, I mean, we have the most restrictive abortion law in the country.

Okay, Mike, Mike Braun says it was a very good project where they actually went out and talked to voters.

Nonsense.

They didn't talk to any of us about that law.

And Beckwith would make a ten year old who's the victim of incest carried that child to term.

I mean, they're extreme.

The most extreme ticket in the country.

And that's the choice.

Obviously, Braun is the front runner here, but there have been some questions about maybe a lack of enthusiasm for Republicans in the state surrounding his campaign.

Did he do anything to change that last night?

I think what's what's happened is for the longest time, he was so clearly the front runner that no one really kind of was thinking about the race.

Like, you know, it wasn't top of mind because everyone just assumed that he had it in the bag.

And as we got closer, you know, it appears through actions and polling and things that it's much closer than people have thought.

So, you know, I don't think he did anything to hurt himself.

I think he and Jennifer gave similar, you know, performances.

I think Donald Rainwater was probably the weakest of the three.

I felt like he was a little off his game.

maybe, you know, because of the attacks he's been undergoing.

Do you think that voters will be going to the polls on November 5th or in the days leading up to it, thinking about the running mates in this race?

Traditionally that is not the case.

But this is not a traditional race or traditional ballot because in the past, at least in recent past, since we're the time frame we're talking about, the eventual nominee had a great say over who his or her running mate was going to be.

not the case this time.

It was sort of thrust upon him.

So that's an interesting dynamic right there.

So you can't necessarily use history as a guide.

And also you've never had such a concerted effort on the part of a challenger to make it part of the public discussion and part of the public conversation and consciousness.

The week ending November 8th, 2024.

Governor elect Mike Braun says his big election victory gives him a platter of opportunity to tackle the kitchen table issues he ran on, including property tax and health care reform.

Braun says his double digit victory in the governor's race gives him a mandate that can help further his agenda, as he works with the state legislature.

And I'll accept it humbly and try to engage everyone in my own party, along with, good ideas across the aisle, Braun says.

an initial focus of his transition will be reviewing state agencies and their leadership.

It's going to be my vision of being an entrepreneurial governor that's going to be conservative on the financial side, but very entrepreneurial on the problem fixing side.

Braun says he likes to move quickly and to expect agency leadership announcements to start soon.

Ann DeLaney, does Braun's win give him greater leverage with the legislature?

No.

I mean, we have a weak governorship with a simple override and you've got a lot of crazy people in those Republican caucuses.

So I don't know how you necessarily control them.

I know he says he's going to solve all these problems, but I'd really like to know with with the scaled back of income tax and corporate tax, how are you going to fix property tax?

At the same time you fix what they screwed up with education over the last 10 or 15 years.

I mean, the part of the reason property taxes are as high as they are is because the percentage of funding from the state budget for K through 12 traditional education has plummeted, and property taxes for per student have doubled over that period of time.

We have one of the highest property tax increase in the country.

So what are you going to do with that?

Is he going to continue or shrink the property tax?

At the same time, he doesn't increase the funding.

I think he's going to have a lot of rural school districts coming and saying, what are you doing to our education system where we have reading down, we have the number of people from high post-high school getting additional education has also plummeted under their watch.

He's got some really big challenges ahead of him, and he's got some crazies in his caucus.

If they if they want to scale back these incremental decreases in income and corporate taxes that nobody really feels, oh.

I can predict fairly safely that that's going to happen.

But but let me ask this.

So again, talking about that relationship with the legislature.

The legislature has been Republican dominated for more than a decade now.

We've had Republican governors obviously that whole time, and they've shown a relative willingness to go, that's nice.

We're going to do what we're going to do, and you're going to sign it or you're not going to sign it.

And we don't really care all that much, does a 14, you know, 13, 14 point win matter to them?

I think it does because I think the theory, as we were getting closer to the election and the and the, you know, the they felt like it was getting closer to the governor's race is getting closer.

I know the House Republican Campaign Committee was worried about losing the Zionsville seat, the car seat, you know, probably the Brownsburg, you know, the Browns.

That one is still up and that one is still technically up in.

The air in six votes, I think.

so there was an idea that if Brown wins by four or 5 or 6 and they bring in, they lose a supermajority, well, someone's going to like, they're not gonna be happy about that.

And that's and that's going to translate to their willingness to go take on a big legislative agenda.

Well, of course none of that happened.

He won by 14 points.

Super majorities Becky Cash and Tiffany Stoner that that was an outstanding matter.

Well, and a lot of what Mike Braun is already I mean, he's already engaged state agencies starting Wednesday, literally Wednesday to to analyze budgets, analyze personnel.

What are they do you know, do a Swot analysis I mean is really like quickly taking a businessman approach to the administration and state government.

But a lot of it's a lot of those changes if you wants to consolidate agencies or rearrange things, which it sounds like has been part of the conversation, that's going to a lot of it's going to go through the legislature.

Those are statutorily created agencies largely.

And so he's going to need some buy in from the legislature.

But the legislature's also spent the last couple of years really taking a hard look at the organization of state government.

What are these agencies doing?

So there's a world where, like Mike Braun and the Chris Garten and Todd Houston, these guys that have been looking at the government that way could come together and go, no, you're right.

We do need to reorganize and create efficiency for you.

To that end, there's so much on the legislature's platter of opportunity, for the upcoming session.

There's so much on the table.

I mean, the budget.

But then all of the things within the budget and all the things that cascade down from that, the issues that they're trying to tackle does a kind of big reorganization of government fit into all of those other big plans?

Maybe, but I think so.

Here's something that I think is, is a little monkey wrench in all the plans.

Is Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith.

So I'm curious to see how he fits in with everything, because I think even though stars may be aligned for, Braun in the legislature, we don't know what he's going to have to deal with internally when it comes to Beckwith.

I think that's where his challenge is going to be.

I don't think it's going to be the legislature, so I'm kind of excited to see how this plays out because I think it's going to be very interesting.

Yeah.

Is the biggest unanswered question about Mike Braun's gubernatorial term?

What Mike, what role Micah Beckwith is going to play beyond the statutory one?

Yeah, I would call it like one be you know, I think I think the legislature will probably be very supportive of a lot of the basic things, the two issues that I think might be more problematic for governor elect Baun are the two that he was most strident about, which are property taxes and health care stuff.

I think they'll look for some smaller things, but not these massive overhauls that the Braun people would prefer on that I also want to know, and of course, it's a 14 point, you know, win.

It's big.

But he would see fewer votes than Eric Holcomb did right here.

So guys, the.

Two big things that clearly Brian is most focused on health care reform, property taxes.

On the property tax side.

Well, he had this relatively detailed plan.

He also has said all along, listen, I'm just casting a vision.

Lawmakers will work out the details.

So I mean, they're going to do something about property taxes.

Is anything basically a win for Mike Braun in that sense?

Well, he'll declare it away.

So yeah.

So I suppose you could do that.

But the question is do the voters feel it and do the education or the educators feel it?

I mean, that's the biggest problem with tackling the property taxes.

I agree, they're too high.

And we supposedly had a solution for Mitch Daniels before.

Remember, all we have to do is put the highest sales tax in the country in place and the property tax problem solve for good.

Well, we solve for about 16 years and it's back again.

Mike Braun is clearly I think this is my perspective, more passionate about health care reform.

It's something he cared a lot about in this business.

He talked about it in the legislature.

He talked about it when he went ran for the Senate.

He's talked about it throughout his time in the Senate.

And now a lot as governor.

Is that arguably the harder battle, and will he be less willing to declare victory no matter what?

Oh, yes.

Our battle, I mean, the legislature has been trying to tackle that for five, you know, last fight forever.

But for the last five years, when it was discovered that we have some of the highest costs in the country.

Right.

and so they have been trying and that made harder by the fact that state government and state legislatures don't control health care policy, most largely.

Yeah.

and so but he does have but he does understand.

And you've seen at the state House last couple sessions, he does understand from his own experience that that is the number one concern of in business right now.

It is their ability to sustain a workforce and a health care program.

And he tells a good story about what he did as a business owner to do that.

And it's why you see the Manufacturers Association, the Chamber of Commerce.

It's not the old it's not the drug companies and the insurance companies lobbying at the statehouse on health care.

It's the employers.

Yeah.

That's Indiana Week in Review for this week.

You can find our podcast on episodes at wfyi.org/IWIR or on the PBS app.

I'm Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Broadcasting.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend and join us next time, because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

Indiana Week in Review is a wfyi production in association with Indiana's public broadcasting stations.