U.S. Rep. Jim Banks is the only Republican candidate for U.S. Senate on the May primary ballot after the Indiana Election Commission voted Tuesday to remove agribusiness executive John Rust.

The commission, made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, voted unanimously that Rust didn’t meet the state’s two-primary voting requirement for Republican and Democratic candidates.

Rust has challenged the constitutionality of the law, but the Indiana Supreme Court turned him down two weeks ago.

The commission also rejected challenges to the ballot status of President Joe Biden and Republican candidate Donald Trump.

In addition, commission members voted to remove Tamie Dixon-Tatum from the Democratic primary ballot for governor after finding she submitted an insufficient number of petition signatures. That decision leaves Jennifer McCormick as the sole Democratic candidate for governor.

Indiana’s U.S. Senate ballot

Rust had given $2.5 million of his own money toward his Senate campaign but faced steep odds in a primary against Banks, who has the backing of former President Trump, the state Republican Party and several national conservative groups.

Rust said he intends to take his legal fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. He contends the law leaves more than 80% of Indiana voters ineligible for party primaries. 

Rust blamed the Republican “establishment” for working to block candidates from the ballot.

“They’re trying to keep me off the ballot because I’m not under their control,” Rust said after the commission’s vote. “They’re looking for a stooge.”

Rust’s lawyer Michelle Harter said she intended to appeal the commission’s ruling to a Marion County judge, although she acknowledged the state Supreme Court’s order would make that appeal difficult to win.

Banks is a heavy favorite for the Senate seat that Mike Braun is giving up in his bid for governor, with two little-known Democrats seeking their party’s nomination.

The Supreme Court order allowed enforcement of a state law adopted in 2021 requiring candidates appearing on Republican or Democratic primary ballots to have chosen that party’s ballot in the two most recent primaries in which they voted. Or candidates can provide certification of party affiliation from their county party chair.

Rust, the former board chairman of the Seymour-based egg producer Rose Acre Farms, maintains he is a conservative Republican but acknowledged he voted in Democratic primaries in 2010 and 2012 before voting in the 2016 GOP primary. 

Rust’s lawsuit argued that the two-primary requirement violated constitutional rights of free speech, association and equal protection. 

Former state legislator and lobbyist Marc Carmichael and psychologist Valerie McCray are the two candidates for the Democratic nomination.

Presidential candidates

Trump will face Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, in Indiana’s Republican primary. Biden will be the only Democratic candidate on the ballot.

The unsuccessful challenge petition against Trump argued he wasn’t eligible because of the 14th Amendment’s ban on officeholders who “engaged in insurrection” from holding office again. 

Benjamin Kester of Monroe County, who submitted the challenge, maintained Trump encouraged the rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Attorneys representing the Trump campaign argued that the 14th Amendment didn’t cover candidates and that the election commission didn’t have jurisdiction to remove Trump from the ballot.

The commission voted 3-1 to keep him on the ballot, with Republican commission members Paul Okeson and Litany Pyle and Democrat Suzannah Wilson Overholt voting in favor. Democrat Karen Celestino-Horseman cast the only vote to remove Trump.

“As a lawyer looking at it with my head, as an American looking at it with my heart, this is a terrible decision to have to make,” Celestino-Horseman said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to rule on constitutional challenge arguments made in other states against Trump’s candidacy.

Okeson, the commission’s chair, said he found the arguments against Trump insufficient to remove him from the ballot.

“I think it’s up to the people of Indiana to decide how Indiana elects its next president,” Okeson said.

The commission rejected a challenge against Biden that claimed his campaign submitted fraudulent petition signatures. The person who filed the challenge didn’t submit any evidence or appear at Tuesday’s meeting.

Democratic governor hopeful removed

McCormick, who won election as state school superintendent in 2016 as a Republican, will be the only candidate in the Democratic primary for governor.

The commission removed Dixon-Tatum from the Democratic primary because she failed to meet the state law requirement of submitting at least 500 petition signatures of registered voters certified from all nine congressional districts. 

Dixon-Tatum, an Anderson resident who was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for a state Senate seat in 2022, acknowledged not meeting the signature requirement. But she argued that the law was unfair to those unable to pay workers to collect signatures.

“I’m not wealthy; I’m not the party favorite,” Dixon-Tatum said. “So I had to do triple, quadruple time, work that most people in this position would not have to do.”

Six Republicans are seeking their party’s nomination to replace Gov. Eric Holcomb, who can’t seek reelection because of term limits. They are:

• U.S. Sen. Mike Braun
• Former Indiana Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers
• Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch
• Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden
• Former state Attorney General Curtis Hill
• Conservative activist Jamie Reitenour

This story has been updated with additional details and comments.

Tom Davies is a Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Indiana. Reach him at [email protected] or on X at @TomDaviesIND.

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