If Micah Beckwith is given five minutes to speak, there’s a good chance he’ll reference two of the guiding principles in his life: his Christian faith and American history. 

There’s also a good chance someone leaves with a proverbial black eye. 

The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor is a slick speaker. After all, he makes his living as campus pastor at Life Church in Noblesville. He easily weaves an oral tapestry of scripture, the Constitution and current events for his audiences.

Beckwith is also, admittedly, a bit of an instigator. He likes throwing quick jabs at the political left whenever possible. His controversial online persona has become a regular talking point of the state’s gubernatorial race — to the delight of Democrats and, at times, to the apparent frustration of his running mate, U.S. Sen. Mike Braun. 

“I like poking the bear a bit,” Beckwith admitted to State Affairs. 

Winning them over in Greenwood

On a cool Wednesday evening in early October, Beckwith’s brief opening remarks at a veterans’ town hall, hosted by The Barn at Bay Horse Inn in Greenwood, drew both nods of approval and a few groans. He seized on the latter response, offering to convince anyone who did not agree with him on veterans’ issues, the state’s property tax woes, the failings of President Joe Biden and other rapid-fire topics. 

“I didn’t know a thing about him before tonight,” said Jeff Kernodle, a U.S. Air Force veteran from Bargersville. 

Kernodle and Beckwith struck up a conversation at the bar before the event, and Kernodle watched intently as Beckwith spoke. 

“He seemed well informed of the topics at hand and in touch with this base,” Kernodle said. “It sure seems like I would be happy to have him in office.” 

Sue Lile, who made the trip from Carmel, first met Beckwith during his failed long-shot bid at Congress in 2020. She praised his knowledge and spirituality. 

“I believe he would do everything he said he would do if elected,” Lile said. “I think he can help Braun.”

Beckwith, the favorite to become the state’s No. 2 executive, wasn’t supposed to get this far. Braun, and even former President Donald Trump, had backed another candidate. But Beckwith’s yearlong courtship of state party delegates proved the difference in capturing the nomination, shocking the GOP in the process. 

“I think it is absolutely the hand of the Lord that has led me through this process,” Beckwith said. “I make no ifs, ands or buts about it. He chooses to use people sometimes.”

But he’s here, and he’s hoping Indiana and America return to what he believes are their Christian roots. His viewpoint is clear, and progressive issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage do not fit into it. 

For Democrats, however, Beckwith represents a true villain. 

“He has said he is a white Christian nationalist,” Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick said of Beckwith. “He signaled that he pays attention to Nazis,” she continued. “He bans books … he compares vaccines to rape. He is just too extreme for what Hoosiers want and need.”

From pastor to politician

Politics and religion have always been a part of Beckwith’s life. 

He grew up in Hillsdale, Michigan, where his parents and grandparents were active in local politics and the Christian church. His grandfather started an ice cream packaging business in the 1960s, which Beckwith’s father expanded into a dairy and ice cream flavoring business. Beckwith credits his father with inventing the Moose Tracks flavor, although that account has been disputed by a couple in Michigan who say they developed it in the mid-’80s.  

Beckwith moved to Indiana to study business and economics at Huntington College. After graduation, he became involved in youth ministry at White River Christian Church in Noblesville and then Northview Church in Carmel. 

He left Northview in 2020 shortly after running for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. 

“I really disagreed with Rep. Susan Brooks and felt she was walking away from conservative ideals,” Beckwith said of his decision to run. “It was kind of a suicide mission — a fool’s errand — but it was really about my principles. I thought, ‘I have got to give conservatives another option.’”

Beckwith finished third in the Republican primary with about 13% of the vote. 

Applying ‘biblical truth to today’s standards’

Life Church Lead Pastor Nathan Peternel met Beckwith on the campaign trail. They bonded over a shared distaste for Rep. Brooks’ politics and their mutual faith. After Beckwith’s defeat, Peternel invited him to lead Life Church’s Nobleville campus in August 2020. 

“Sometimes, when you run for office, a lot of churches won’t touch you,” Peternel said. “But I could tell he had a call on his life to be in government.”

Peternel encouraged Beckwith to lean into his conservative beliefs as part of his work as a pastor. 

Life Church adamantly fought COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates from late 2020 until 2022. Beckwith estimated it provided 4,500 religious vaccine exemptions to Hoosiers during the pandemic. 

The church has openly opposed gay Pride and other LGBTQ+-related events, and Beckwith regularly speaks out against abortion. 

“We apply biblical truth to today’s standards or culture,” he said. “It tends to be political, because abortion, marriage, sexuality, gender, immigration, taxes — those are all biblical issues. God has a lot to say on all of those.”

Beckwith became extremely active on social media, and in May 2021 he and Peternel launched a podcast, “Jesus, Sex + Politics,” to further share their views. 

“You can’t preach on everything on Sunday morning, but we’d still like to talk about what’s going on in the world,” Peternel said of the podcast. 

‘Rising up the ranks by embracing Christian nationalism’

Beckwith has for years embraced the Christian nationalist label. He even posted a Facebook video in 2022 explaining “why every follower of Jesus should be a Christian nationalist.” 

Andrew Whitehead, an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University at Indianapolis and author of “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States,” has studied Christian nationalism for more than a decade. He defined the movement as “a cultural framework that aims to fuse together a particular part of Christianity with American civic and social life.”

“This idea is that the country was founded by white, Anglo-Protestant men and should still be run by that group — or at least they’re the ones with the strongest claim to positions of power,” Whitehead said. 

Whitehead noted that the group is relatively small and has shrunk over the past 10 to 15 years but that those within the movement tend to be fervent supporters. 

“Beckwith’s rise within the Indiana Republican Party really makes sense in that there are other folks across the nation who have risen up political ranks by embracing Christian nationalism,” Whitehead said. “That appears to be part of his story as well.”

The term “Christian nationalism,” Peternel said, is used by opponents in an attempt to “scare,” and denied that he or Beckwith holds any racist beliefs. 

“It means that you love God and love your country,” Peternel said. “And America has been one of the greatest forces for good that has ever been.”

A ‘conservative insurance policy’

In 2022, the Hamilton County Council appointed Beckwith to the Hamilton East Public Library’s Board of Trustees. 

He quickly spearheaded an audit of all children’s books in the library branches’ children’s section. A controversy unfolded over the next year, with critics accusing the board of banning books. 

“I’ve never been an advocate of book banning,” Beckwith said. “I think there is appropriate content for children. … We don’t just let kids have access to anything and everything.”

Books mentioning sexual relationships and puberty were moved to the adult section of the library under the policy. 

“Micah was very upfront about his ideas based on his religious beliefs and values and experiences,” said Fishers City Councilor Tiffanie Ditlevson, who served on the library board with Beckwith. “It wasn’t always well received, but I liked the way he never shied away from people who didn’t like him or differed in opinion.” 

By 2023, the members at the heart of the policy were no longer with the board, either through removal or resignation.. Beckwith also resigned to begin his lieutenant governor campaign. The book review policy was eventually rescinded. 

Beckwith then spent over a year meeting with potential state Republican delegates to pitch himself as a “conservative insurance policy” in the lieutenant governor position. He met with thousands of potential delegates in 2023 and 2024, he estimated, sharing his perspective and answering questions. 

“The delegate process is the very definition of retail politics,” he said. “It’s not about the money or the flashy palm cards. It’s about shaking hands with people and hearing from them.”

Gubernatorial candidates typically choose their running mate, who is customarily ratified by the delegates. Braun had selected state Rep. Julie McGuire of Indianapolis. 

She had received several major endorsements from state executives, including Secretary of State Diego Morales and Treasurer Dan Elliott, as well as Trump’s backing just before the June 15 state Republican convention. 

But Beckwith prevailed at the convention, earning 891 delegates to McGuire’s 828. 

By Beckwith’s count, two churches supplied the delegates needed for his narrow victory over McGuire for the Republican lieutenant governor nomination. 

His church provided 40 delegates. Living Stones Church in Crown Point provided another 25. 

Ron Johnson, senior pastor of Living Stones, said he motivated his congregants to get involved in the delegate process without weighing in on whom they should vote for. 

“The fact that folks voted for Micah is probably because they know him and have had a relationship with him for years,” Johnson said. 

Beckwith and Johnson have been friends and visited each other’s churches since Beckwith’s congressional bid. 

Johnson, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the Indiana House of Representatives in 2000 and 2012, said he personally supports Beckwith’s candidacy. He believes people of faith should get involved in politics. 

“Someone told me when I ran to leave my beliefs at church, but no one is able to leave their beliefs anywhere,” Johnson said. “They follow you wherever you go.”

An online candidacy

Beckwith is a regular presence on social media, typically posting multiple times per day across several platforms. His X account regularly posts sections of the Indiana Constitution, but he also shares his beliefs, often through self-recorded videos. 

Some of these posts have riled, and even alarmed, his critics. 

In a now-deleted video posted the day after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Beckwith said God had told him: “I sent those riots to Washington” and “what you saw yesterday was my hand at work.” Clips of that video remain online. 

In another video, posted on Facebook, Beckwith called for removing the rape and incest exceptions in Indiana’s near-total abortion ban. “A lot of people on the pro-life, conservative side were really fighting to get that exception removed,” he said in the video. “We couldn’t get that done.”

The video also advocates for penalties for doctors who perform abortions. 

Another post indicated Beckwith and Braun support stricter abortion laws. 

During a Sept. 27 livestream as part of a 50-day prayer event, Beckwith summed up the Republican and Democratic statewide tickets in 2024. The progressive nonprofit Right Wing Watch shared a video clip of the comments. 

“If you look at the Republican ticket versus the Democrat ticket, it’s strength and godly boldness versus the Jezebel spirit and this idea of no boldness or boldness for immorality,” Beckwith said. 

The term “Jezebel” is often associated with female sexual immorality, both in the Bible and throughout history. Indiana’s Democratic candidates for governor, U.S. Senate and attorney general are all women. 

McCormick has called on Beckwith to apologize for the comment. 

Beckwith explained that his posting is meant to push back on the left, which he said bullies people online through cancel culture. 

“I know what I post will rile up the left, and that’s exactly what I want to happen,” he said, “because I want to expose their foolishness to the world.”

For his part, Beckwith’s running mate is tuning out the rhetoric. 

“None of that stuff is going to make a difference other than the other side is going to try and amplify it,” Braun said. 

An anti-Beckwith online group

Reece Axel-Adams, an Earlham College sophomore who lives in Pendleton, told State Affairs he disagrees with pretty much everything Beckwith posts online. Axel-Adams created Hoosiers Against Micah Beckwith, a Facebook group that has more than 1,400 followers. 

“I cannot say enough bad things about Micah Beckwith,” Axel-Adams said. 

Beckwith’s embrace of Christian nationalism and opinions about the LGBTQ+ community are particular pain points for Axel-Adams, who identifies as gender nonconforming and bisexual. 

“I do not care how good your policies are,” Axel-Adams said. “If you don’t believe in me or my friends’ right to live, be happy and marry, then I cannot support you.”

Axel-Adams, who also manages Democratic state Senate challenger Suzanne Fortenberry’s campaign, suggested Beckwith might use the lieutenant governorship as “a springboard” for higher office. 

“We should be scared of Micah Beckwith getting anywhere near power,” Axel-Adams said. 

Beckwith’s approach to the office

Beckwith believes the lieutenant governor’s office has become too “ceremonial.” 

“My point is, if it’s the people’s office, it needs to be more forward facing,” he said. 

If elected, he pledges to help deliver Braun and the Indiana General Assembly’s messaging — as long as it remains tethered to conservative values. If not, he wouldn’t hesitate to speak out publicly against it. 

“Republicans tend to be a little boring,” he said. “We can be a little too analytical and don’t connect with the heartstrings of voters. What I bring is a way to take the ideas of good governance and make it resonate with the heart.” 

Beckwith will operate within the constitutional parameters of the position, he said. They include casting tie-breaking votes in the state Senate and running state agencies geared toward tourism, agriculture and rural affairs. 

But he will remain vocal and online, he said. And he will continue to stand up for his beliefs. 

“Christian principles should be what our nation is rooted in,” Beckwith said. “And when that happens, everyone is better for it.”

Contact Rory Appleton on X at @roryehappleton or email him at rappleton@stateaffairs.com.

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