Support shifts in Secretary of State race.

Recounts abound in numerous Indiana districts, and Rokita trying to reverse gender markers from the television studios at WFYI Public Media.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending May 22nd, 2026.

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

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.

Indiana's Attorney general, Todd Rokita, went from endorsing Secretary of State Diego Morales two weeks ago to now calling for him to step down from the race.

Caroline Beck reports on the new candidate that Indiana's Republican Party is now backing.

Overnight, Max Engling became the favored candidate for Indiana's Republican secretary of State office.

Numerous Republican leaders, including Rokita, US Senator Jim Banks, and U.S.

Representative Victoria Spartz all publicly endorsed him Thursday.

Engling is currently an adviser to Banks and previously ran for the Republican nomination for the fifth Congressional District in 2024.

Rokita called into question Morales's ability to win the general election, pointing to the multiple controversies that have plagued him since taking office in 2023.

But he's also had several self-inflicted wounds that bring into question his ability to be elected this fall.

Morales announced Thursday afternoon that he intends to stay in the race.

So why the sudden shift in support?

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

Democrat Robin Winston.

Republican Whitley Yates.

Laura Merrifield Wilson, professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis.

And Ebony Chappel, director of brand and community strategy at Free Press Indiana.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

So Whitley, what do you think could have caused this change of heart for GOP leadership?

Well, I'll say it's not that big of a change of heart, but for those that had already endorsed him, it does seem like a flip flop.

But when you look at the totality of issues that the Secretary of State has faced, from issues with his spending in his office, hiring family members, as well as some of the trips that he's taken abroad, and now with this chief deputy chief of staff that may or may not be a citizen, but is registered to vote with the Secretary of State being the chief election officer for the state of Indiana.

It's a serious concern.

And Senator Jim Banks stated that he asked him flat out and he was lied to.

And so accountability isn't an attack when you're doing the work.

But if you do not live up to the public transparency that is expected in a position of public trust as a problem.

And so I think that what we saw wasn't some type of like a slow backing out.

It was a strategic evacuation of support from the Secretary of State Diego and cultivating a lot of support momentum around the new candidate, Max Engling.

I mean, Whitley makes a good point, Robin.

You know, these incidents for the Secretary of State have been ongoing a number of high profile controversies.

This latest one, as well, though.

But why now?

Because it's one day before the filing deadline to be the nominee for their party.

These have been going on for years.

They didn't have any problem with them before Banks endorsed him as recently as March.

All these things had accumulated in the silo that night.

Your viewers that are listening today are not in the $95,000 taxpayer funded car like he is.

He hired relatives on the staff.

He gave huge bonuses, traveled abroad as an economic development official.

But, you know, don't underestimate Diego Morales.

Because on a Tuesday night in Tipton, he is at their Lincoln Day dinner.

Don't underestimate this.

What happens at their convention?

I can remember a guy named Curtis Hill was supposed to win.

He didn't get beat by Rokita.

I can remember that Sullivan was supposed to win.

She didn't get beat by Morales.

I can remember that.

That McGuire was supposed to win.

Got beat by Beckwith.

So it's not over till it's over in their convention.

Were you surprised, Laura?

There were so many calls for him to step down.

But Diego Morales saying yesterday that he would not.

Can he, you know, pull in Micah Beckwith at the convention?

Yeah.

I think if there could be a pathway to victory for him.

This is anti-incumbent season, though.

It really feels like people who are currently holding the office have a liability rather than an advantage.

One of the things I think is really interesting.

You're talking about delegates and about 2000 people.

You need to have a majority.

And now you have four candidates in that race.

It makes it just a little bit harder every time.

and we saw a slew of these endorsements for Engling, but we haven't heard from Mike Braun, and we haven't heard from Donald Trump, who is on his revenge tour, you know, typically would not be giving endorsements in state races, except obviously he is now.

Those are two that I'd be really interested to see where they weigh in on this.

And Micah Beckwith today saying he still does support Diego.

So we're seeing a little bit of, you know, a change, or a rift in the party.

Again, that is, you know, along lines that are not new to us here in Indiana.

But as Laura mentioned, you know, this is a going to be a very busy race for the Republicans, although not to mention everybody else that's going to be jumping into the secretary of state race.

does he have a chance at the convention next month?

I think that Robyn and Laura laid it out perfectly.

There is always an opportunity.

I do think that it's interesting when you mention Jim Banks.

You know, there's a way to look at this, and dig a little deeper and see that this might be another example of Banks taking over the party, which I think is also a pointer to the White House because, you know, Donald Trump, Jim Banks running the party, getting people out that they know are not going to help them win.

These elections that are very crowded are very competitive.

So I think they're hedging their bets.

And right now, Diego, in certain people's eyes is dead weight.

So it's like, toss them over.

Let's get with the with the winner.

Somebody that we think can really pull this out for us.

So it will be interesting to see how it all how it all plays out in political theater.

Yeah, it will be interesting.

as the conventions roll in, you know, we also heard from some people that maybe it was the polling that the Republicans are saying that, Diego might not have the support.

Do you think something like that plays.

Oh, just a little bit.

I think it had to do with it.

Also, I think that we voted 320,000 Democrats on primary day.

That's a bigger number than 18, 20, 22 and 24.

So the trend and people coming to the polls for vote for our party was very high, this primary.

So maybe they're seeing, some early forecast.

Whitley what does this say just about the party, you know, cohesing around a candidate like this.

And it was just like so apparent that everybody got the memo.

everyone did get the memo.

And to be honest, looking at the primaries, you don't really want to bet against Banks because Banks puts money in the bank and he tends to have his candidates win.

What I will say is that this, to me, signals that Beau is a viable challenger, which a lot of people didn't think that he was.

However, with the entrance of Max, the disgruntled Republicans that didn't like Diego, that may have for Bayh may vote for Max instead if he comes out of the primary.

And we also have the wild card of former Governor Ballard that's still sitting out there and how his votes are going, you know, to sway people either away from the Republican Party or towards Bayh.

So I think overall, I wouldn't bet against Banks at the same time Bayh is a viable challenger.

It's going to be fascinating to watch ahead of November elections.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Every week we post an unscientific online online poll question.

This week's question will the newly backed Republican candidate for Secretary of State, Max Engling, beat out Diego Morales?

Vote yes or no.

The last question posed to viewers Should Indiana make changes to its correctional system to lessen the burden on local jails?

88% saying yes.

12% answering no.

If you would like to take part in the poll.

Go to wfyi.org/iwir and look for the poll.

Paula Copenhaver, the Trump backed challenger in the Senate District 23 race, wants to subpoena voters over alleged illegal crossover voting in the primary.

Caroline Beck reports the move comes with Copenhaver's call for a recount in the very close race.

Copenhaver and her lawyers argue that the ballot secrecy that every voter is entitled to should be waived in this circumstance due to an alleged violation of Indiana's primary voting laws.

State law specifies who can vote in a primary election, but provides no way to enforce that requirement.

The petition claims voters publicly said they were Democrats, but voted for incumbent Spencer Deery to stop the, quote, MAGA challenger.

Elizabeth Bennion, a political scientist at IU South Bend, says historically, the Recount Commission has acted as an auditing body.

So this is not a standard recount request.

It is.

Unprecedented, Deery said in a statement.

He rejects Copenhaver claims the recount process could take weeks.

So, Robin, have you ever heard of a situation like this where voters may be deposed in a recount?

No, no, I mean, you are getting to a very sacrosanct area where your ballot is now going to be pulled from wherever it is stored, and somebody is going to go over it.

Remember, voter intent is what wins in this case.

You can vote in a Democratic primary, Republican primary.

If you say in November, I intend to vote for the majority of the candidates of that party.

These people.

What do we get to know, ouiji wall, I mean, we don't even know what people are going to do.

So we're going to say, well, we think you, Jill, might vote Republican in the fall.

You don't know that for a fact.

So the reason that this sets a very bad precedent is it sets a very bad precedent.

People don't even a lot of people don't vote in primaries because they don't want to line up behind a party.

Now you're going to pull their personal ballot and go through it to see who they voted for.

I'm asked that question time and time again.

Can you tell us who voted yes or who voted no on a particular thing?

No.

You can't.

And if you start doing that, that's a very slippery slope.

Is this a line that we need to be careful of with?

Because she's talking about how people voted and what they said.

Then on social media or in other public platforms.

I mean, this is political strategy, and it's not the first time that people have crossed over or pulled a Republican ballot to not get someone in or pull a Democratic ballot to be effective in choosing someone for office.

And so I'm questioning the intent.

Besides, I lost the race to these 14 people or three people.

Excuse me.

I think it feels like it's sore loser at this point.

I think what we need to happen if you don't want this to happen in the future, is you need to change the laws on how people can vote in the primary.

And I don't think that that's going to happen.

And so it seems like she's fighting a ghost.

And there are a number of instances, Laura, where, you know, both parties have have called on voters to, you know, vote for the other party for one reason or another.

I mean, this is not the first time, but, is this an unusual situation for this particular recount race?

Certainly for the recount, I think to the point of crossover voting.

We have semi-open primaries that allows people to essentially take either party ballot and the voter registration.

You don't have to declare your party.

So I think they could look at the laws.

not now.

That's not what we're doing.

We're litigating or questioning these 14 ballots.

But, when the state legislature reconvenes, we've had conversations about switching to a closed primary system.

One of things that I think the open primary affords us is the ability for voters to change their mind, to consider, like, what if I'm slightly, one way or another?

And to Robin's point, no one's going to be able to go.

I'm not going to support this party in November.

I think that's very, very, very difficult to litigate.

You can change the laws, but that's not what we're going to do here in this election count.

That will be happening if the state legislature chooses to do so when the legislative session reconvenes.

But it can be confusing because of the unenforceable law here.

Exactly.

Yeah.

That's true.

you know, we've also heard that this could have possibly a chilling effect on voters.

is that something we should be concerned about?

I think it's something we should absolutely be concerned about.

While we saw record numbers, turnout in Marion County in this last primary across the state, it continued to be low around that 17% of registered voters showing up range.

And for me, I think if you add this into the pot, with people already being very apathetic toward voting in general, you have other issues where people are worried about voter suppression when they show up to the polls.

I think this is just going to make it worse, and it's going to continue to have more and more people not show up.

I think that we should focus on widening the availability for people to show up and vote and make the choices that they think make sense to them.

And it's like, if you want to win, you have to do what it takes to plan and figure out another strategy.

But this, you know, coming back and wanting to, you know, change stuff around is just it's really negative.

And it's not it's not the direction that we need to be going in as a state.

It is interesting.

We've seen a number of recounts across the state at this point.

You know, what do you think that tells us about?

That was a very competitive Republican primary on their side.

but look at it like Jefferson Shreves numbers.

His opponent wasn't even known and got 47% of the vote.

So going back to what you said earlier, there are a lot of people that were anti-incumbent going in.

But keep this in mind.

We coined the phrase Reagan Democrats.

If that is not a crossover, I don't know what that is.

That's people that voted for Ronald Reagan that were Democrats.

So we don't want to repudiate.

I mean, now we go after after action reports.

We look at how Latino men voted for a presidential candidate, how Democrats swing swung over.

That's why it's a swing states.

So now all those things are being thrown out because of the challenge in Lafayette area?

I don't think so.

What about the closed primary discussion that's going on now as well?

I could see that gaining some traction within the State House, where you have to mark on your registration or reregister with the party, and then by the time the primary comes around, you have to vote the way that you registered.

I could see that happening.

However, it will limit people that may be disgruntled or upset with the powers that be, so you are inevitably tying your hands either way.

And so I think it would be wise on the legislator to leave things the way they are.

And if you want to win in the primary, then get more voters.

That works.

Also this week, Attorney General Todd Rokita's office is trying to undo orders issued by local judges to change a person's gender on their Indiana birth certificate.

Zak Cassel reports.

For years, the Indiana Health Department accepted judge's orders for transgender people to change the gender on their personal documents.

In early 2025, Governor Mike Braun issued an executive order that led state agencies to end that.

Attorney General Todd Rokita said he would seek to reopen individual cases where judges ordered the change.

Indianapoliss Rhye Carroll recently learned Rokita unexpectedly intervened in her settled case.

He asked the court to reverse its original order.

A judge had already approved her gender marker change.

This is like what I have nightmares about.

So for this to happen, it's just terrifying, honestly.

Rokitas office did not respond to questions from WFYI.

So, Laura, is it surprising that the AG continues to open these cases?

Ideologically, I don't know.

That is necessarily surprising.

with the Braun administration last year, I think it was in March, we saw the executive order that defined gender as a biological binary.

That was the term that it used.

And that's really what kind of kicked this off in the first place.

So we we have shifted socially to being much more conservative as a state.

And this is a very outgoing, very proactive attorney general.

I can remember attorney generals we've had where I'm like, I can't remember what they didn't office like Todd Rokita is not one of them.

So I think that part makes sense.

from a Constitution perspective, I think it highlights the fact that this is not a constitutional office.

So there's questions about what's the role, what's the responsibility of the attorney general?

it's actually a statutory office.

So it's rights are defined by the Indiana General Assembly.

And I know there's political opinions on both sides, but I think that's one of the fascinating things when you look at this, it's not a constitutional executive office.

And there was a really good article in the Indiana Law Review.

It was called Indiana's Attorney too general t-o-o, I thought was brilliant.

And bonus points just for the clever title, but talking about the fact that there's ambiguity within the powers of this office.

I think that's part of what we're seeing highlighted right here.

Ebony, what does it tell you when we continue, when the AG continues to go after cases like this, cases that have been settled for individuals, and they felt like they already cleared that hurdle.

I think there is an issue of civil rights, and I find it extremely, disconcerting that this office would be used in that way.

It reminds me of some of the things that we experience during a lot of the protest and things happening around the issues in the Middle East, and how the attorney General's office is jumping in there.

And we're going to create this, you know, body that's going to police how people operate in this way.

And it's like, that feels like a gross overstep.

And it feels very, very unnecessary.

Understanding what the rules are now, if people want to go and get these gender markers changed.

You cannot there is no real, you know, simple pathway to be able to do that.

That is what it is.

But to go back for people that under the law at the time did the steps, did what it is that they needed to do, get a judge to sign off on their paperwork.

That, to me feels extremely unnecessary.

And what message is that sending about who we are as a state that certain Hoosiers, their identity could just be ripped away from them just because this is, you know, the pathway that somebody wants to take.

So I find it extremely, disconcerting.

Well, some of these individuals, Robin had had, you know, these changes before the executive order.

And we're very surprised to see this action being taken against them at this point.

Does this make sense for the AG?

No, it doesn't make any sense at all.

You're 100% right.

We're invading on civil liberties of people.

Look.

So here's my political plug.

Republicans want to see your ballot.

Now they want to make sure you can't make whatever gender change you want to make on adjudicated by a judge to be able to do that.

Meanwhile, we have 13 swatting incidents involving state legislators and one city council member here.

It's the AG wants to investigate things.

Grab the state police and the FBI.

Let's solve those kind of thing.

I mean, the AG does have a lot to do, as Robin points out.

Should this be a top priority?

I don't know if it should be a top priority, but he is in alignment with Governor Braun, and Governor Braun has made it very clear through his executive order on what he expects in his administration moving forward.

So the AG deciding to double down on that and go back retroactively attempt to circumvent some of these court orders that gave the birth certificates different gender markers, is in alignment with not only the ideologies of the party, but the principles of the party.

But there are a lot of issues that we have seen that need to be tackled in this state.

And so I understand why Attorney General is doing it.

But right now, I think we have a lot that we can be focused on specifically here when it comes to some of the issues that we've seen specifically with the law.

Yeah.

Also this week, the president of Purdue University says he's stepping down to take another job.

Mung Chiang will take helm at Northwestern University in July.

Dylan Peers McCoy has more.

Mung Chiang has been Purdue's president for just over three years.

He's been a leader at the university for nearly a decade.

Chiang previously served as dean of the College of Engineering and the executive vice president for strategic initiatives under former Purdue President Mitch Daniels.

A trained electrical engineer.

Chiang's research focused on computer networking.

Chiang will leave Purdue, which has more than 58,000 students and is one of the state's flagship institutions.

For northwestern, a private Illinois university, less than half its size.

So Ebony, what do you think of Chiang's departure?

So there are a lot of mixed opinions.

one from the northwestern University community, as well as people that were with him at Purdue.

So it's really fascinating, honestly.

So there are people, it at northwestern that are excited about having an accomplished engineer, even though he doesn't consider himself such right now.

that could pay attention to STEM and how to bring things like that more to the forefront at their university.

There are other people that are really concerned, by his track record, when it comes to aligning with his own faculty at Purdue, 74% of the faculty wanted a provost to resign, and he did not align with them, which created a lot of, you know, schisms, in that community.

I found it interesting that at Purdue, there's people that are, you know, pretty much feeling like, good riddance.

Glad he's somebody else's problem.

We knew that he was a climber, and that's where he wanted to be, was at this prestigious university.

So there doesn't seem to be a huge surprise there.

but he, he comes across to me as a really you know, polarizing figure.

I guess it's the best way to put it.

So, Laura, every time I've met him, he does, you know, he is on point.

He really is, you know, playing the game.

President of university is this is surprising move for him because as Ebony mentioned, you know he does have such background in the research and the engineering and what Purdue is so well known for.

So he was well-suited at that at that point.

So I think it's a great promotion for him.

It's a great opportunity.

And this leaves a new position at Purdue for the presidency, a great opportunity for somebody else there.

I think it does speak to Mitch Daniels and the lineage of leadership that he has, which is wonderful to see in Indiana.

I think increasingly in higher education, we do see a lot of tension between faculty and administration, but that is as old as academia itself.

so that kind of tension just feels like it's par for the course.

But I look at this as there's a new empty position and I'm interested to see who will step up and take that kind of leadership at Purdue.

But I think the board is, talking about it, next week as well.

But, you know, with his departure, there's also a lot of pressure on public universities.

And, you know, the political climate may play into decisions that leaders make when they're choosing, what university to go to.

Do you think there was any of that for Chiang?

Unfortunately, I think that this lens to instability within the institution after having such a foundational leader like Mitch Daniels for so long, freezing tuition and really just paving the way in post-secondary education to have such a short tenured, president, I think does not necessarily leave them on the best footing, especially when we're seeing declining rates of students going to post-secondary school, when you're also seeing the way in which the government is adjusting how much money schools are going to be able to get.

You want to have stability not only within the student population, but also within the faculty.

Well, they have a difficult time finding the perfect person for this job.

After Mitch Daniels did sit in that held them for so long.

No, they won't have a hard time finding somebody in that job.

You know, presidents are leaving.

President Louisville left to go to Penn State and wasn't there very long.

I think the the political affects people a little bit.

But let's face it, you know, northwestern is not going to hire somebody that's not eminently qualified.

So apparently he's only qualified.

He's on his way.

Yeah.

I mean, their last president left, due to some issues with the federal government.

He resigned.

and that was highly contentious.

so, yeah, it is interesting to see that trend that.

Well.

Well, it is 500 this weekend Carb Day today.

So we're going to do the round robin.

who is your pick for the winner Robin.

People of Indianapolis and the State of Indiana Yeah.

First off and I do hope that Palou wins again I think it'd be great.

What do you think?

Like, I just want everyone to have fun.

I don't actually know who's racing.

I pick the car based on the color and the outfit.

So the winnie mobiles too.

What do you think Ebony?

I hope that Mother Nature is on the speedways side.

and also milk shout out to all the milk that's going to be drank.

I didn't know they get to pick there.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I think so.

What do you think?

Okay.

I think Palou is going to win.

Okay.

He's won.

Before.

Yeah.

But the Hoosier in me is rooting for Connor Daly.

I have a feeling it might be Ed Carpenters year.

Oh, that's hot today.

Carpenter racing at, Indiana Week in review for this week.

Our panel has been Democrat Robin Winston.

Republican Whitley Yates, Laura Merrifield Wilson professor of political science, University of Indianapolis.

And Ebony Chappel, director of brand and community strategy at Free Press Indiana.

You can find Indiana Week in Review's podcast and episodes at wfyi.org/iwir or on the PBS app.

I'm Jill Sheridan, managing editor at WFYI.

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

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

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

Additional support is provided by ParrRichey.