Mike Braun wins the GOP primary for governor.

Braun chooses Julie McGuire as his running mate.

Plus, history in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary and more from the television studios at WFYI.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending May 10th, 2024.

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

This week, U.S.

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 freedom and opportunity.

The two most important things.

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

Was there anything surprising about the Republican gubernatorial primary results?

It's the first question for our Indiana Week in 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's statehouse bureau chief, Brandon Smith.

Mike O'Brien, 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 Brown 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, the and now he's saying the right thing.

And what he 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.

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 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 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, demagogued 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.. Hallelujah.

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 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 mention.

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.

He lost an election, a caucus and a convention.

And so, for some reason, 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 her political, her probably some retirement makes sense for or at least something outside of elected office.

Brad Chambers was a political newcomer.

Probably just goes back to the private sector.

Eric Doden kind of.

Maybe the same thing is, is 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 got her.

She's had some name recognition now.

So there's still 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.

Yeah, and we'll see.

We'll see what God calls her to do next, because that's I mean, that's literally what she said.

She ran for governor for.

All right.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we post an unscientific online poll question.

And this week's question is, who will win the race for Indiana governor?

Now that we know the three candidates for sure Republican Mike Braun, Democrat Jennifer McCormack or Libertarian Donald Rainwater, last week's question was Should Indiana legalize cannabis?

56% of you say yes for recreational use.

A third of you say yes for medicinal use and 11% say no.

If you'd like to take part in the poll, go to wfyi.

Org's wire and look for the poll.

I think those 11% are all state lawmakers.

Mike Braun quickly made his choice for running mate this week, selecting first term state Representative Julie McGuire, a relative newcomer to the state political scene.

Longtime political analyst Ed Feigenbaum says Braun's decision is an important one, considering he would be the second oldest person ever elected Indiana governor.

You know, one question that.

Needs to be asked is, you know, is somebody ready?

Is somebody prepared?

Is somebody qualified to be the governor?

If they're chosen as a lieutenant governor, nominee.

Lieutenant governor, candidates are chosen by the state party convention delegates, and Republicans will have a convention fight on their hands.

Ultra conservative Pastor Micah Beckwith is also running for L.G.. McGuire is perhaps best known for defeating incumbent far right lawmaker John Jacob in the 2022 primary, which Feigenbaum says raises more questions about Braun's choice.

The social conservatives are decidedly not happy about Braun picking her, and there are some in that camp that might not have already migrated to Micah Beckwith, who will be going with Team Micah.

Feigenbaum says.

He's also heard there could be a third candidate for LG at the convention, who hopes to be a more mainstream choice for social conservatives.

Ann Delaney, are you surprised by the choice of Julie McGuire?

Oh, I think so.

I mean, there are a lot of well-qualified Republican women that are out there.

The Lugar series has helped to see for that to that.

And yet he picked somebody who's not even finished her first term in the Indiana General Assembly.

That's not one person.

I mean, who else?

You know.

I wonder whether Mike Braun in his, you know, he says he's going to be candid and open and all of this.

I wonder if he was candid and open with her and said, you may be a lieutenant governor, but don't count on going any higher than that.

She says, what happens with.

What is wrong with you?

If we have if we have a problem, that we have a problem?

That is absurd.

Well, no, it's not absurd.

Look what happened to Sue Ellspermann, okay?

You guys move them.

You use them to draw in women votes, but nobody gets to the top.

Unlike Democrats.

We've nominated we've nominated women.

We've elected a woman attorney.

We elected the first woman lieutenant governor.

On and on and on.

You, you you you have this ceiling.

That's not it's not glass.

It's steel.

And you make sure that you use women in positions that don't have the authority of governor or senator.

And then when the time comes, when they actually could move up like this last time when she could have had the endorsement of the incumbent governor, but you had what you.

Thought was going to hurt her.

Was going to have the party support her.

In a previous analysis.

Going to have the party support her for the nomination?

You didn't.

Okay.

I want to ask away changing subject.

I want I want to I want to ask about Julie McGuire.

So Ed thinks that the social conservatives are already inclined to dislike her because she beat one of their favorite sons, John Jacob.

Do you buy that analysis?

There's two things I there's two reasons I disagree with it.

One was even even the farther, even the strongest pro-life advocates did not like John Jacobs being around.

This is a guy that wore bloody scrubs or, you know, scrubs, scrubs and carried around a plastic fetus.

I mean, this guy from the pro-life community at the house when he was wrong was like, get out of here.

You're like, you're making it harder to do everything.

Yeah.

and so that's one thing.

The second thing is, I think that the convention is, I mean, if, if that if there's any room that is close to 100% for Trump, it's that one.

and Trump was for Braun.

The chambers got know.

And so who does he pull from.

We're not gonna poll from.

She's from Suzanne's supporters.

Right.

For Micah Beckwith you're not pulling from Brad Chambers.

You know business community to Mike to Micah Beckwith.

They're going to support you know, they're going to pivot support Mike Brown.

And they're going to and for the third.

It's the party.

So imagine our supporters they right.

Sure.

But I can't imagine our first move with a brand new governor.

The party just elected or nominated the first thing to do is go cut his legs out from under him and nominate a guy who's positioning himself to be a hostile lieutenant governor to whoever the governor is.

Yeah, I want to ask about that, because he obviously came out with a statement after the pick of Julie McGuire was announced and, you know, said, I still want you to pick me, but this is a solid choice by Mike Braun.

Isn't that a tacit like.

You don't.

Have to listen to me.

What are you going to give me to get here?

Well, it's it's you can go vote for her now.

I've just given you permission.

She took me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was a little dig, but at the same time, letting people know, like, okay, she like me so we can go ahead and have her in my place instead.

So a little dig toward her.

I think in some ways, that to make people who may have thought she's a little different than Braun and maybe attract people who are different than Braun for Micah to say No, she's like me.

She's a little me, so go ahead and choose her.

If it it feels like what's might be happening with the convention is a little what Mike has talked about already with the gubernatorial primary results, which is we saw what the outcome was going to be for a long time, but kind of talked ourselves into maybe a little, oh, maybe this really is a race.

It's also kind of happening here with the with the LG pick.

I mean, it's a novelty.

We've never had someone, you know, one run as lieutenant governor straight off before we even had the nominee.

So you can't dismiss it.

It's, you know, definitely going to be interesting.

But I just would be shocked if people if the delegates would, you know, throw that back in Mike Brauns face.

He's they're legitimate strong Republican candidate.

And he's probably going to be the next governor.

And I don't understand what's gained by not choosing Julie McGuire.

I don't know what people would have against her in that sense.

Yeah, I was going to ask this.

What is she getting?

What what you know, what what is she bringing to the table?

But does she need to bring anything to the table?

Do you just need to not take something?

I think table no, I think you need to bring something to the table.

And I think that's what Jennifer McCormick will bring.

She has the ability to talk to the voters of Indiana about the issues that matter to them, not how much you know, she's supposed to hate Biden or love Trump, but what education infrastructure keeping are keeping opportunities for our children to stay in the state?

Those are the questions the bread and butter issues that voters want to hear about that Braun doesn't even talk about, and she can bring that to the table.

I don't know, I don't think there's enough information yet about Julie McGuire to say whether she can even do that.

Well, but isn't that part of the appeal?

Like she's not controversial?

She's not going to raise questions for you.

She's good.

She's a solid South.

I mean, even Micah Beckwith, that's solid.

Exceptional, but solid choice.

All right.

Valerie McCray won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, making history in the process.

McCray is the first black candidate to be a major party nominee for U.S. Senate in Indiana history, and the first woman to be a nominee for U.S. Senate in Indiana history.

The clinical psychologist calls her campaign the Little Engine That Could, one that secured the primary victory on a shoestring budget.

My team was worth $1 million.

It didn't matter how much.

We had in our account, our team was just awesome.

As McCray looks ahead to the November election, she says it won't be hard to draw a distinction between herself and Republican Congressman Jim Banks.

I think that people will gravitate to the fact that I'm a different type of a candidate.

I'm not a typical candidate.

I'm not a career politician, and people want something different.

McCray will face off against Banks and Libertarian Andrew Horning this fall.

In a statement, banks, who was unopposed in the GOP primary, said Indiana deserves unwavering conservative leadership in the Senate.

Well, she avoid I mean, veteran McCray faces more of an uphill battle than even someone like Jennifer McCormick does, because she's going to be at much more of a financial disadvantage to Jim Banks.

But can she parlay the fact that her candidacy is making history into making this anything even close to competitive?

She's going to try?

Let me first say how it's very appalling that at this point in 2024, we're still having a first a first black woman, the first black person in 2024, as long as black people have been in Indiana.

So that is very appalling that we are still at this point.

So, but to your question, it's going to be an uphill battle.

I mean, we saw from her primary how much money she made it on a shoestring budget.

We know Jim Banks has name recognition and he has money.

So, thinking that Wednesday she woke up and she started, trying to fundraise to make money for the general election, because she's got a she doesn't have a name recognition the same way Jim Banks does, nor she have a record which could be to her advantage.

So she does not have a record.

but she definitely does not have the money.

Is part of the problem here, that there won't be any national money coming into this race either.

In a, in a in a year when there's so many really tight Senate races across the country.

Absolutely.

I mean, you can look at Jim Banks.

I mean, he's he's going to pretty much roll through this.

And so if I'm a Democrat and I'm trying to decide where to put my funding, you know, where it would have more of a chance.

I mean, this is probably not where I would put it.

And so that's going to be a real big problem for doctor McCray.

All right.

Voters chose the winners this week in for hotly contested Republican congressional primaries, while two state House incumbents lost their reelection.

Bids.

Former Congressman Marlin Stutzman won in his bid to retake his third district seat, the closest of the four congressional primary results.

He won by only about two points.

Incumbent Congresswoman Victoria Spartz won her fifth district primary by about six points, while former Indianapolis mayoral candidate Jefferson Reeves, self-funding helped deliver a sixth district primary win, and State Senator Mark Messmer easily secured the eighth district GOP nomination over former Congressman John Hostetler at the state House.

Six term Republican Representative Sharon Negele lost her reelection bid, as did Democratic Senator David Vinzant.

Vinzant only joined the General Assembly in January via a private political caucus to replace Eddie Melton.

And the man who beat Vinzant Tuesday was Mark Spencer, who lost that caucus earlier this year.

Nikki Haley, let's talk first about the congressional results, and then we'll talk about the state House races after that.

But who stands?

What stands out to you among those four congressional races?

I mean, I think the third district was fascinating watching it through the night.

We really went into that election night having no idea who would win.

It could have been one of any four.

And in fact, throughout the evening it would be, you know, centers is in the lead and then Tim Smith is in the lead.

And then that was in the lead.

It just went back and forth.

So that was kind of exciting for Indiana election nights where you generally know the results before you go in.

So, you know, he was a familiar face to the district.

he had good endorsements, good money.

And so he pulled it.

Out in the congressional races.

It felt a little like name recognition of one sort of or another kind of decided the day Marlin Stutzman, former congressman, won that race victorious.

Parts of the incumbent won that race.

Jefferson, who spent the most money and had just run for mayor, won that race.

I think the only one where that doesn't maybe make as much sense as the eighth, where a former congressman Hostetler lost to Mark Messmer.

Now, for a long time.

A long time ago, does it feel like the name that voters now is the one that increasingly is everything else aside, that's what's going to decide things?

Yeah, it hasn't always been that way.

For the most part.

I mean, I feel like the name recognition is what gets you in the door once you are a known quantity.

People just kind of like, okay, we're just going to go ahead and vote for you again.

We don't really have to know your record.

I know that, we talk here about what the voters really know and care about.

I don't think most people really know and care about a lot of things that we talk about that that they do think people just.

I remember I remember this person, they've been in here, I'm okay.

My life is okay.

I'll vote for you.

these races, in some cases, got nasty.

Really nasty.

Oh, my.

Goodness.

Two, two.

Yeah, yeah.

That that that dance across the fifth probably at the at the top of the list.

But is there any fallout from these or is it everything settles down now.

Well I think everything settles down in those seats because they're they're so securely.

Yeah.

Republican.

Biggest bummer of the night Sharon Negele losing for entirely local reasons to having to do with the LEAP district and the water issue up there.

Lots of it.

But just a loss to that to that caucus and fiscal leader.

And then just a great speaker of Republican women.

She was to a certain level that very well she wasn't picked for lieutenant governor.

Let's, let's, let's do what I think it would be a little weird to pick someone who just lost for governor.

She has the experience.

I want to ask I want to ask about the state House races.

We don't see incumbents lose very often, which is not unique to Indiana.

but that leap district, the IDC local control issue was the race.

This wasn't, a lot of times when you see incumbents lose in Indiana or any particularly conservative state, it's a far right challenger, right.

Who and, the incumbent doesn't go far enough that direction.

This was not that.

This was just about local control.

Is that send a louder message to the state House.

It ought to.

I mean, the way that whole LEAP District was handled was a was an abomination.

I mean, the idea that you set up a program like that without knowing what the water needs are going to be, and then you go in and you spend incredible amounts of money to to buy the land up.

And don't expect that that's going to get some scrutiny.

It really was very poorly handled.

So it's not surprising that there would be fallout from it.

people are justifiably concerned about the water supply by itself.

Never mind all the other questions raised by it.

You know, if you're going to have transparency, having these, quasars in between government and the people that can do all these kinds of things without an awful lot of supervision, it's frankly, appalling.

You and Curtis Hill are on the same page on that one.

He talked about that a lot during the campaign.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, Curtis and I are really close.

I want to I want to ask more about that.

The Negele race I mean I think the Democratic one was interesting.

But I'll go back to that in a second.

I want to ask more about Negele which is, the House Republican Campaign Committee poured a lot of money into that race to try and and help her.

She got beat handily.

Yeah.

Is this a little bit on leadership who just didn't let the bills from Deery and Negele?

You know, the.

..go anywhere?

It was shocking to me because at least from my perspective in in the state House, Sharon Negele is one of the most effective legislators in that building.

You know, she works well with both sides of the aisle.

She's smart.

She gets bills through the finish line.

and so I just asked for things that she really can't control.

You know, she filed those bills to try to control the water.

You know, they didn't go anywhere.

And so I just it was kind of shocking to me that she would be held that she, of all of the people to do with leap, was the one who somehow got tossed out with the bathwater.

Probably should have been more vocal.

She probably should have come out and come out against the leadership that didn't let the bills go forward.

But as a member of leadership, that's also tricky to do.

It's tricky to do, but if you want the seat, we'll.

Take some of that.

I want, I want to ask about again, before I talk about the Democratic race, I want to ask one more question about the Negele race, which is, again, kind of are there any long lasting effects here?

Does this put more of a I mean, we're going to have a new governor and then a new legislative session with a budget writing session.

So kind of like, okay, we'll actually do stuff now, is this send a more strong message to state House, like maybe we really need to rethink our strategy with the IEDC Oh, that's common for sure.

I mean, the legislature was already hit in that direction, no matter who the who the governor was, because of the amount of money in the, you know, the even though they are they are they they would the IEDC would argue were very transparent.

All the all of this information is available, maybe not.

After the fact.

but no, I think the legislature is going that direction.

Anyway.

I want to talk about the Democratic race because I think it presents an interesting question.

So David Vinzant caucused in in early January, even though Eddie Melton the, the outgoing state senator and then new mayor, said, oh, I want Mark Spencer to be my successor.

Narrow caucus race.

Now, Mark Spencer runs in an open primary and beats Vinzant.

Is this more of an argument that the private political caucus system for replacing retiring lawmakers maybe doesn't capture what voters want?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think so.

I think it is.

It's one of these things where we have leadership, not listening to what people actually are saying.

They want people, the leadership, think they know better.

And, many times they don't.

It's it's very interesting to me how oftentimes because you're insider, you have this inside information and you think you have all the, the details and, and what people like.

But the people are saying, no, we want this person.

And so this was a case where it proved to be listen to the people versus listen to leadership.

We need to start doing that more.

That's and definitely listen to the voters.

What voters really want, as we saw with marijuana, voters want marijuana in Indiana.

All right.

Finally, friend of the show, Jay Kenworthy, posed an interesting question on social media recently.

Relevant in the wake of some of these primaries.

We've been talking about how much money would you have to have in the bank before you would spend $10 million running for office?

Ann Delaney, what is your number?

I think you'd have to be like Jefferson Shreve.

And he didn't spend ten between those two races.

He was closer to money.

Yeah, yeah, but that's really just part of the interests of his, fortune.

So, you know, it just depends on how much you have.

If you're going to spend 10 million, you better be somewhere north of 200 million in the bank, two.

Hundred million in the bank.

What would you have to have in the bank to spend 10 million on a office you might lose?

It doesn't really matter, because I don't think the Italians are going to elect the Italian voters of Lake Como.

We're going to elect somebody from in the United States or Indiana.

Yeah, that's some carpetbagger.

If you have that kind of money, you're not you're not anywhere close.

By the way, there is no amount of money I can have where I would put $10 million into my.

That was going to be my answer.

Yeah.

Yeah there's that.

Yeah I yeah, I find that kind of money.

I don't think I'd bother running for office with it.

Yeah.

I've always said if I win the lottery, you'll never see or hear from me again.

There will be somebody buy a ticket for.

Youre gonna buy a soccer.. Or buy a soccer team.

All right, that's 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/queer or on the PBS app on Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Broadcasting.

Join us next time, because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the panelist.

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