Mike Braun speaks to supporters at Moonshot Brewing Co. in Whitestown after being declared the winner of the Indiana Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (IBJ photo/Mickey Shuey)
By Cate Charron
Indiana Business Journal
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun has won the Republican nomination for governor, easily defeating a crowded field in the most expensive primary in state history.
With an estimated 65% of precincts reporting, Braun was leading with 39% of the votes over Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, who had 22%.
Braun will face Democrat Jennifer McCormick, the former state superintendent of public instruction, and Libertarian Donald Rainwater in November’s general election to replace Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican. McCormick was unopposed in Tuesday’s primary.
Braun told supporters at Moontown Brewing Company that if he wins in November, he will be the most entrepreneurial and accessible governor the state has had.
“We are heading onto a journey that I hope you challenge me,” Braun said. “I’ll be challenging you, and we’re going to take this state to a place we’ve never seen before.”
In the Republican race, former Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers had 17% of the vote, followed by Eric Doden with 13%, former Jamie Reitenour with 5% and Attorney General Curtis Hill with 4%.
Crouch said on X, formerly Twitter, that “we must come together as a party and a people to ensure we elect Mike Braun in November.”
“We need bold leadership to reduce the state’s tax burden, help those battling mental illness and addiction, and support our law enforcement professionals,” she posted.
Earlier on Tuesday, Braun said he would provide a recommendation for his running mate to the delegates at the State Republican Convention.
The party’s candidate for lieutenant governor will be formally chosen at the convention on June 15 in Indianapolis and then run on a ticket with the gubernatorial nominee, who will be chosen in Tuesday’s primary election. Typically, the delegates approve the gubernatorial nominee’s pick. But they are not required to do so, and neither is the candidate required to make a recommendation.
But Braun said he will make a pick—a decision he said would come “soon.”
McCormick has not said when she plans to announce a pick for lieutenant governor.
Analysts had predicted that Braun, 70, would have a strong showing for a trifecta of factors: name recognition, former president Donald Trump’s endorsement and his war chest.
During the campaign, he touted his experience as a businessman and U.S. senator, running a campaign to tighten up the state government and finances and redirect the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s strategy. He also weighed in on several national issues, such as securing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Indianapolis, said topics such as immigration, abortion and international affairs gave Braun the upper hand in the GOP primary given he has both Trump’s support and time spent as a national politician deciding those issues.
In a statement Tuesday night, McCormick said Braun’s win sets up a clear choice for voters in November.
“I will stand firm in my commitment to the values that define us as Hoosiers,” she said. “I will fight to restore our reproductive rights and freedoms, champion for our kids, and ensure Hoosiers earn the wages they deserve. Indiana values reflect those of common sense, civility, and bipartisanship. Let’s bring this back to our great state.”
In 2018, Braun self-funded a campaign for the U.S. Senate as a political “outsider” and nabbed an upset over incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly. Prior, he served two terms in the Indiana House of Representatives representing his native Jasper, Indiana. Braun was also previously the founder and CEO of logistics company Meyer Distributing.
In what was one of the most expensive gubernatorial primaries in Indiana history, Braun was well-funded with help from conservative political advocacy groups, including Americans for Prosperity and Club for Growth. He had the second-largest amount of campaign cash on hand in mid-April even after spending $3.2 million in 2023 and $6 million in the first quarter of 2024.
The crowded race dampened the potential for greater competition, analysts say, with candidates struggling to differentiate their campaigns because their ideologies largely overlapped.
“We’re not talking about major differences on public policy issues there,” said Mike Wolf, director of Purdue University Fort Wayne’s Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics. “If there’s not much distinction between those voters or the candidates, as a consequence, then somebody that has the money, that has already won statewide, has some clear advantages.”
A smaller field could have led to more individualization and focus on topics or identities that set them apart. Wolf said there had been some potential for another candidate to create momentum on local issues, such as economic development, yet that never fully took place.
Looking toward the general election, Chad Kinsella, director of the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University, said turnout for the presidential ticket will be key to the closeness of the gubernatorial election.
“What has happened nationally, not only in Indiana, is how people vote at the top of the ticket very much dictates how they vote all the way down,” he said. “So how well Trump performs here or not is going to really help or hurt Mike Braun.”
In a statement Tuesday night, the Democratic Governors Association called Braun “far too extreme to be Indiana’s next governor” and criticized his views on public education and abortion.
“He’s also entering the general election after a bruising primary – the most expensive in state history – where even members of his own party had no problem spending millions of dollars to go after him,” the DGA said.
And Indiana Democratic Chairman Mike Schmuhl said that despite spending more than $40 million collectively on their campaigns, “the Republican candidates for governor saw historically low turnout in a presidential primary, lower than 2020 and just half the turnout of 2016.”
“Tonight’s results show it’s clear that Hoosiers want a different, new direction for our state,” Schmuhl said in a statement.
Chambers said in a statement Tuesday that he had called Braun to concede. “I entered this race because I believe Indiana is a great state, but that with the right leadership, it could be even better,” he said. “I hope U.S. Sen. Braun will be the leader Indiana needs and act ambitiously to create more opportunities that will lift up every Hoosier.”
