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Andrea Hunley is a rookie Democrat from Indianapolis. Will she be heard in the Indiana Senate?
State Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, stops for a portrait during a family outing Feb. 11, 2023 to the North Mass Boulder climbing gym in Indianapolis. (Credit: Ryan Martin)
Andrea Hunley and her teenage daughter stared at the rock climbing wall. Its red handholds snaked more than 10 feet into the air, but for two amateur climbers, the distance may as well have stretched five times that.
“I’m really bad at it, but it’s also really good to try something new,” Hunley, 38, told State Affairs. “I think it’s important for my kids to see me do things that are hard — and continue to push through.”
Her two daughters were also a big reason why Hunley, a longtime public school principal in Indianapolis, recently acquired another title: state senator. Hunley is the first person to represent a newly created district that spans the heart of the city.
And so, on that trip to the North Mass Boulder gym in February, Hunley reached for the first handhold. Then the next. And the next, until she soon found herself atop the wall, peering at her daughter below.
OK, Hunley said. You can do it, too.
* * *
Hunley isn’t thinking about metaphors on the trip to the climbing gym. For her, it’s a typical Saturday: She and her husband Ryan simply taking their 12- and 14-year-old daughters on an active family outing. When it’s not a hike through a state park or a historical walk down Indiana Avenue, it’s rock climbing.
But if Hunley ever let a fear of failing stop her, she might still be an English teacher living a relatively quiet life. She may not have enrolled in a master’s program while pregnant with her second child, later stepping out during breaks to meet her husband in the parking lot to nurse their newborn. She may not have become principal of the sought-after Center for Inquiry 2 in downtown Indianapolis, quickly earning the nickname “BP” from one teacher (it stands for Baby Principal) before garnering respect and admiration from educators and parents over 11 school years.
And she certainly would not have dared to join a competitive state senate race against four other candidates, including someone backed by the Marion County Democratic Party.
So far, any fear of failing has been washed away from an even greater feeling of responsibility, particularly in education policy.
“It frustrates me that people are legislating on things that I do not feel that they fully understand,” Hunley told State Affairs. “If you walk into a school and you ask a teacher what the biggest issues in education are right now, they would say teacher pay, our teacher shortage and literacy.”
* * *
It was in 2020 when Hunley began visualizing the steps that would one day take her to the Indiana Statehouse.
At the time, Hunley’s home lay in the district of State Sen. Jean Breaux, a stalwart Democrat who has represented Indianapolis in the state Senate for more than 15 years.
Hunley decided she would convince Breaux to become her mentor. And then when Breaux retired down the road, Hunley would be ready as her successor. Hunley began following Breaux’s work more closely. She attended her events, watched for bills that she filed.
“I started shadowing her,” Hunley said, “without her really realizing it.”
Breaux, informed this week by a State Affairs reporter of the secret shadowing, laughed and said she had no idea.
“I’m honored, actually,” said Breaux, who describes Hunley as someone who fights for her values and for what she wants — even if it means taking on the county Democratic Party.
“They told her no. And she said, ‘Senator Breaux, when they told me no, that’s when I decided I’m running.’ And I said, ‘You go for it then,’” Breaux said. “She’s tough. And she’s not a pushover.”
Hunley does not remember a time when she didn’t plan to eventually run for office. Her high school classmates in Fort Wayne even dubbed her as most likely to become the first woman elected as U.S. president.
She grew up learning from an engaged family. Back in 2003, her mom joined her aunt, who is a Catholic nun, in a drive to Washington, D.C., to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq. She remembers the words on her mom’s sign: soccer moms for peace.
It was Barack Obama’s campaign for president, though, that drew Hunley into Democratic politics. Still in her early 20s, and working as a teacher at Ben Davis High School at the time, Hunley volunteered by staffing a phone bank at his Indianapolis office.
Curiosity led her to attend a Women4Change event in 2017 where former Indiana Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann, a Republican, spoke to a crowd of women inside an Indianapolis hotel ballroom. Women, Ellsperman said, typically need to be encouraged seven times before they finally decide to run for office, Hunley recalled.
“And so then she said, ‘I’m asking you to run. You need to run. You need to run.’ And she just said it seven times in a row,” Hunley said.
Micah Nelson, a friend and co-worker from school, attended the event with Hunley. She, too, had been considering running for office but that day clarified for her what should happen next.
“It was just clear through the conference that she should run for office and I would be happy to support her,” Nelson said. “We have a saying that strong women empower other women. I think that characterizes our relationship. We’re friends, we’re colleagues, we’re each other’s cheerleaders.”
Only one office interested Hunley, and that was state senator. She wanted a position that could shape education policy for Indiana. She’d maybe consider state representative but the two-year terms were too limiting.
So that’s why Hunley called her state senator, Breaux, in 2020. It was a step on her yearslong plan.
“And I know that my voice sounds like a 14-year-old,” Hunley said. “And she’s like, ‘Now who are you, honey? And how old are you? You want to do what?’”
But then came a shock in September 2021: Indiana Republicans, who were in charge of redrawing legislative districts following the 2020 census, changed the shape of state Senate boundaries in Indianapolis. Breaux’s district would now end northeast of Hunley’s home.
The new heavily Democratic district sat open for the taking.
* * *
Late one night, Hunley invited over two friends who know the tempo of the city’s politics. They agreed on one point: It would be hard for Hunley to win the Democratic primary.
The District 46 primary featured Kristin Jones, an Indianapolis city-county councilor backed by the Democratic Party who carried a fundraising advantage. The race also contained another strong candidate in Ashley Eason, who had experience running for another state Senate seat.
Hunley’s experience as an educator was undoubtedly valuable, said Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Indianapolis. That experience, however, is not always viewed in the same light as an elected position, she said. Hunley, after all, had never served in public office.
“But I think she either was just very bold or intuitive. She was willing to take that risk,” Wilson said. “She knew something that other people didn’t.”
Hunley confirmed to State Affairs what was rumored at the time: An awful lot of Democrats privately told her not to run.
“That’s what everyone told me,” Hunley said. “I mean, every single person told me that. Every single city councilor I talked to told me, ‘Don’t run. It’s not your turn.’ Even people who I’ve done a lot of work with and who I really trusted — even people who were in education and who I thought would be excited — they’re like, ‘Don’t do it.’”
Hunley ignored them. She announced her candidacy in November 2021.
One person who works within government affairs, though, cautioned that she lacked the financial support and it was going to be “really, really hard.”
So Hunley asked him: “Is this going to be white guy hard? Or is this going to be Black woman hard? Because I’ve only known hard.”
* * *
Hunley was still a baby in Indiana’s foster care system when her dad and mom found her.
“When she came to pick me up from the adoption agency, she says they handed her this naked baby with a dirty diaper on and she never put me down,” Hunley said. “And I feel like that is how my mom still raises me, like she has still not put me down, which I appreciate.”
Hunley grew up in Fort Wayne along with two siblings, both who were adopted, too.
Their parents were open about how their family came together. In Hunley’s childhood home hung a framed print from her parents: A prayer for my adopted child.
And her family celebrates her date of adoption — July 3, 1984 — as her special day, something more precious to Hunley than her birthday.
“I haven’t ever been a person who really gets excited about birthdays,” Hunley said, “because my parents weren’t there.”
Anyone who spends any time around Hunley can see how important her family is to her. Not only her kids and her husband Ryan — who she met while working on the high school newspaper — but her extended family.
Hunley’s parents, grandmother, sister and her sister’s four kids all live in Indianapolis now.
While taking classes in her master’s program, Hunley begged them to leave Fort Wayne to come help her. So they did, and they still gather for dinner at least once a week.
A few years ago, Hunley finally met her birth mother and half sister. She knew very little about them but was able to track them down.
“It was lovely to get to know them,” Hunley said.
Both visited Indianapolis for Hunley’s swearing-in to the state Senate. At the ceremony, someone asked Hunley who stood with her. She worried about introducing her birth mother because Hunley believed it was her birth mother’s story to tell whenever she was ready to tell it.
So Hunley responded with something broad: This is my family.
Then the other woman spoke up: “I’m her birth mother.” It was a weight off Hunley’s back.
She still worries, though: Will her adoption be used as a weapon against people who, like her, believe in abortion rights?
* * *
Because of her progressive politics, almost no one expected Hunley to make a splash in the Indiana General Assembly, especially not this year.
She has advocated for gun control as a volunteer for Moms Demand Action. She’s a strong supporter of the teachers union. She believes Indiana is underfunding numerous public services, including traditional schools and health departments. And teachers, at a minimum, should start at a $70,000 salary.
In a legislative body firmly gripped by Republicans, how is a rookie Democrat from Indianapolis supposed to accomplish much?
She refuses to let partisan disagreements serve as excuses for inaction. For one, she understands the power of what she represents. She’s one of five Black people serving in the 50-member Senate, and one of just nine women.
Hunley also admits to being something of an “eternal optimist,” but she believes she will make a difference by building relationships with every legislator and by being true to herself.
She’s already gained a fan in State Sen. Michael Crider, R-Greenfield, who chairs a Senate committee where Hunley serves as the ranking minority member.
Crider told State Affairs he’s been impressed by Hunley’s thoughtful approach to the legislation she’s invested in. One example is Senate Bill 233, which would create a task force seeking to improve pedestrian and vehicle safety. The bill moved through the Senate — an uncommon feat for a freshman, particularly one in the superminority.
“Really, serving as a legislator is people skills on steroids, where you’ve got to be a person of your word and you’ve got to say what you’re trying to accomplish,” Crider said. “And so I think her personality and the way she carries herself is going to help her along in building that credibility that needs to happen if you’re going to be successful long term.”
She began working toward that credibility on Organization Day, the November kickoff to the 2023 legislative session that truly began seven weeks later. For veteran lawmakers, it’s a homecoming; for freshmen legislators, it’s the calm before the four-month storm.
On that day, Hunley stood inside the state Senate chambers. She stopped Republican lawmakers to introduce herself, all direct eye contact and handshakes and smiles. She said hi to their kids and grandkids.
Then when she spotted Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, a Republican on the verge of announcing her run for governor, Hunley hopped to her and asked to take a selfie. Both smiled for the phone camera.
Earlier in the day, Crouch had leaned over to Hunley and said: ‘‘I am so glad we have another woman in the Statehouse.”
“Like, that’s really kind,” Hunley told State Affairs. “Here’s what I know: When women lead, regardless of party, when women lead, we really work hard to listen and to build coalitions and consensus and really make change. And so I have been really impressed by the work that she’s done. I’m looking forward to her run for governor.”
Crouch is facing Eric Doden and U.S. Sen. Mike Braun in the 2024 Republican primary for governor.
But Hunley’s interests in working across party lines may have a limit. Asked about the prospect of a Gov. Braun in 2024, Hunley’s words were less enthusiastic.
“Oh, heaven help us all,” she said. That’s because Braun made comments last March that suggested the legality of interracial marriage should be determined by states. (Braun later said he misunderstood the reporter’s question and walked back those comments.)
Hunley’s husband is white. Her parents are also in an interracial marriage.
“No. I do not have any nice words that don’t have four letters in them to say about that man,” Hunley said. “And so my mother has taught me to just keep my mouth shut when that’s the case.”
* * *
In a legislative session that kicked off with talk of avoiding so-called culture war issues, the last few weeks have seen plenty of divisiveness.
Some of the fiercest debate occurred on Senate Bill 480, which would ban some health care options for transgender youth, and on Senate Bill 12, which would open up teachers and librarians to criminal prosecution over what’s contained inside school books and other education materials.
Hunley spoke against both. She was perhaps at her sharpest when questioning another freshman lawmaker — State Sen. Tyler Johnson, R-Leo-Cedarville — about Senate Bill 480. She started by saying the two of them were on a shared journey as new senators, and she thanked him for representing some of her family members who live in the area of her hometown, Fort Wayne.
But then she dove in. She noted the bill sought to limit the intake of estrogen and progesterone, two hormones used in birth control pills. As a mom with daughters who might one day need the medicine, Hunley wanted to ask about the bill’s impact on her eventual discussions with doctors.
So Hunley stared at Johnson and asked: “Do you think if I’m sitting in that doctor’s office deciding which hormone is more suited for my child, that the state should make that decision, or that I should make that decision?”
Johnson did not answer her question, instead staring at his lectern while saying: “And I hear that you’re wanting to put kids through this process where they really have these irreversible, unproven, life-altering procedures done to them, and we’re the only body that has this moral, medical and legal authority and obligation to protect kids from this.”
It was language he repeated several times under questioning that day.
Hunley appeared to be confused by the response. She followed up: “So do you think having progesterone is life-altering? Like I’ve not been taking progesterone for many years, like is my life completely altered because I was taking it temporarily for a period of time?”
Johnson again did not provide a specific answer, instead saying: “I’m not going to comment on your specific case.”
The bill easily moved through the Republican-controlled chamber, but Hunley’s advocacy and questioning stood out to State Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, who heads his party’s caucus in the Senate.
“Senator Hunley has a way of professionally telling you you’re wrong, and I think it comes from being a teacher,” Taylor told State Affairs. “Being able to tell somebody, in a nice way, that you don’t know what you’re talking about. And she’s done that several times.”
* * *
Back in 2021, at the start of the campaign, Hunley’s daughter Addison dreaded talking to people.
Walking up to strangers’ doors to share her mom’s campaign literature? It was tough for the then 13-year-old.
“I could never just go in front of someone and ask a question,” Addison said.
Hunley, whose campaign centered on visiting as many voters’ homes as possible, continued to bring her. And something happened: As the weeks went by, Addison’s fears began fading.
“Continuing to knock on doors allowed me to, like, open up as a person,” Addison said. “It’s really helped me grow throughout my school experience.”
And back in February at the Indianapolis climbing gym, after watching her mom scale the wall, Addison reached for the handhold, and climbed.
Contact Ryan Martin on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or at [email protected].
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Header image: State Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, stops for a portrait during a family outing to the North Mass Boulder climbing gym in Indianapolis on Feb. 11, 2023. (Credit: Ryan Martin)
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the protest of the U.S. invasion of Iraq was in 2003.
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Final Republican governor debate focuses on economics, abortion
INDIANAPOLIS — Five hopefuls vying for the chance to be Indiana’s next governor took each other to task — and at times fought the questions themselves — on economic development, social issues, election integrity and more during Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial debate hosted at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
The debate, the last of the primary cycle and sponsored by the Indiana Debate Commission, at times spiraled into revolt, as candidates disagreed with moderator Jon Schwantes’ yes-no questions on election integrity and immigration. In other moments, the candidates stuck to their various platforms on taxes, education and beyond.
Former state Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden, former state Attorney General Curtis Hill and Indianapolis mom Jamie Reitenour participated.
Sen. Mike Braun, who has thus far led the crowded field in the polls, informed the Debate Commission on Monday that he would not attend the debate. He returned to Washington, D.C., where he cast one of 19 dissenting votes against a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The bill passed the Senate on a 80-19 vote.
Braun’s rivals targeted him several times in his absence, but the five candidates on stage mostly focused on one another throughout the debate. Gov. Eric Holcomb, a frequent target in previous debates, was hardly mentioned.
Schwantes, host of the WFYI-FM series “Indiana Lawmakers,” read from a slate of questions submitted in part by state voters and selected by the Debate Commission.
Election integrity
The night’s first major clash occurred during yes-no questioning on the safety and authenticity of the country’s elections.
Each candidate except Reitenour said they were confident in Indiana’s election integrity. All acknowledged the 2020 election was not stolen.
Asked if Joe Biden was the duly elected president, Hill and Reitenour pushed back, saying “anomalies” were not properly investigated.
The candidates essentially refused to answer a question asking if they would accept the 2024 election results, saying it was too hypothetical.
Agreement on abortion
Several questions were asked about abortion, though the candidates largely agreed on the issue.
The group was asked whether the state’s current abortion ban, which includes exceptions for rape, maternal health and other limited circumstances, was sufficient.
Chambers, Doden and Crouch agreed it was.
Hill called for increased enforcement of the ban, saying the state’s health department is not providing the necessary reports for terminated pregnancies.
“I brought 2,411 unborn babies from Illinois to have them buried in Indiana to establish their humanity,” Hill said, referencing a 2020 action he took as attorney general.
Reitenour did not answer the question directly, saying only that “we need to be a state that says we are for life.”
The group refused to answer when Schwantes asked if they agreed with the Indiana Supreme Court, which he said found the maternal health exception to be necessary under state law.
The candidates also agreed on in vitro fertilization, saying it should be allowed in Indiana. Some conservative states have targeted the procedure as part of the abortion debate.
Return to the IEDC
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. (IEDC), and particularly its LEAP Innovation District project seeking to build a ready-made space for business in Lebanon, Indiana, was a return topic from past debates. Chambers and Doden previously led the organization, and Chambers rose in defense of the LEAP District.
Reitenour called the project “putting a whale of a company in the middle of the desert with no water.”
Doden also directly criticized it, saying the IEDC existed only to help businesses navigate government rules.
Hill called the IEDC “a shadow government” that needed to be “reined in.”
Crouch used the question to launch into her plan to get rid of the state’s income tax.
“It’s a terrific contrast between career politicians and small thinking,” Chambers said in response to the criticisms.
Chambers goes after Crouch
Crouch was asked whether it made financial sense to cut the income tax, which brings in billions in state revenue each year.
Chambers seized on the topic.
“It’s a political talking point if ever there was one,” he said. “She has not told us how much she’s going to have to cut education, public safety, police, mental health or health care.”
Crouch doubled down, noting the income tax is already phasing down to below 3% in the coming years.
“Let’s just keep going in that direction when we have excess surplus in revenues,” she said.
Differing education approaches
A question about improving Indiana schoolchildren’s test scores led to a contrast in policy approach.
Doden and Crouch focused on school choice and workplace development.
Chambers said students require individualized learning opportunities.
Reitenour railed against critical race theory and social-emotional learning, saying kindergarten through fifth grade students need more focus on educational fundamentals.
Hill urged schools to stop taking federal money that requires certain programs, which Crouch joined in supporting.
Closing statements
Candidates were allowed to summarize their candidacy in final closing statements.
Chambers focused on his economic plan, likening his hopes for the state to his career as a businessman.
“We believe it’s time for a CEO, someone to run [the state] like a business,” Chambers said.
Hill leaned into social issues, railing against abortion and claiming “there are only two genders.”
“Don’t let politicians give you a laundry list of conservative talking points and say that’s enough,” Hill said. “Prove you can do the job.”
Doden focused on his platform talking points: restoring small towns, growing the economy and expanding zero-cost adoption.
“We have more plans in writing than everyone on this stage combined,” Doden said.
Crouch returned to her key proposal, which would eliminate the state’s income tax.
“My opponents say it’s a gimmick, but what they’re really saying is the government needs more of your money and you need less of it,” Crouch said.
Reitenour said God called her to run and cast doubt on Indiana’s conservative reputation.
“We live in a state that says it’s a red state and believes in conservative values, and yet I am trying to figure out where the conservatives are in government,” she said.
Read this related story
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Republican rivals knock Mike Braun for missing final governor debate
U.S. Sen. Mike Braun faced criticism from other Republican candidates for governor over missing their final televised debate because of scheduled Senate votes Tuesday on providing military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Tuesday evening’s 90-minute debate will go on as scheduled with the remaining five Republican candidates still expected to participate, according to the Indiana Debate Commission, the nonprofit group organizing the matchup.
“Braun’s campaign team notified the commission late Monday that he must be in Washington, D.C., for a vote,” the commission said in a statement.
A Senate vote on the military aid package wasn’t expected until at least Tuesday night.
Braun issued a statement casting blame on Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for scheduling the vote three days after the Republican-led House approved the bill.
“I was looking forward to sharing my vision with Hoosiers at tonight’s debate but Chuck Schumer has called the Senate into session,” Braun’s statement said. “Tonight, I am in D.C. voting ‘no’ on a bill to send $95 billion of your money overseas instead of securing our open southern border, which puts Hoosier families in danger every day. I’m proud to stand up for you and vote against the Biden spending spree making life unaffordable for so many Hoosiers.”
The Brad Chambers campaign contrasted Braun’s potentially skipping the debate to vote on the military aid package to his missing last month’s Senate vote on a $1.2 trillion spending package avoiding a government shutdown several hours after attending an Indiana campaign fundraising event.
“Career politician U.S. Senator Mike Braun continues to insult Hoosiers and put himself first,” Marty Obst, senior strategist for Chambers, said in a statement. “He’ll skip votes in D.C. to collect checks at a campaign fundraiser but then use votes to skip a debate and hide from voters and his record.”
Braun’s campaign said he returned to his home in Jasper following a Friday-evening fundraising event and planned a return to Washington the next day for the Senate vote. But his campaign said the vote was unexpectedly held at nearly 2 a.m. that Saturday — and that Braun would have voted against the government funding bill that passed 74-24.
Tuesday’s debate is scheduled for 7-8:30 p.m. before an audience at Hine Hall Auditorium on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus. It will be televised by several PBS stations across the state and streamed on the commission’s website, indianadebatecommission.com.
Braun had support from 44% of likely Republican primary voters in a State Affairs/Howey Politics Indiana poll conducted in early April. Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Eric Doden and Chambers each received about 10% support.
Crouch campaign manager Liz Dessauer said in a statement that “Braun skipped a key budget vote to attend a campaign fundraiser, but now suddenly realizes he needs to do his job in order to skip the last debate?”
Long-shot candidate Jamie Reitenour, who is among those taking part in Tuesday’s debate, also knocked Braun for missing the debate for a Senate vote while not missing last month’s government funding vote.
“He’s trusting that his $7M campaign spending will trump his disrespect for the voter!” Reitenour posted on X.
Update: This story was updated to include a statement from Braun explaining his absence from the debate.
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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Holcomb says he’s confident of investments from Brazil, Mexico trip
Gov. Eric Holcomb wrapped up his weeklong travels to Brazil and Mexico by saying he expected new business investments to emerge from the trip. Holcomb told reporters Thursday night from Mexico City that he had many productive meetings with government and business leaders promoting Indiana’s agriculture ventures. “It really does remind me that face to …
Mike Braun on why he wants to be in politics ‘at a level of significance’
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one in a series of profiles of the candidates running for Indiana governor.
JASPER, Ind. — Mike Braun was a former two-term state representative in 2018 when he compared himself to the ultimate “outsider”: President Donald J. Trump.
Braun used that label to defeat two sitting congressmen in a Republican U.S. Senate primary race he had begun with about 1% of support in an internal poll. Then he used five Trump Make America Great Again rallies and $11 million of his own money (and another $20 million from an undisclosed donor) to upset Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly.
“Here, we come in as a sitting senator — it’s a much different dynamic in how the political market is going to accept you,” Braun said of his current campaign, as opposed to the one he largely self-funded in 2018. (A conciliation agreement made public in late March revealed that the Federal Election Commission fined Braun’s 2018 campaign $159,000 for failing to properly disclose more than $11 million in transactions from July 2017 through December 2018.)
“I think we’re in good shape because we’re fairly solid when you look at the record I’ve got,” he said of the current campaign, in which he repeatedly invites Hoosier voters to examine his record in office. “Politically, this is less of a mystery in terms of what to do. We just need to execute in a similar way to what we did in ’18 and get the message out that will resonate with Hoosiers. I feel confident we’re going to be able to do that.”
Sen. Braun continues to bill himself as the “outsider” — along with former Commerce Secretary Brad Chambers — as he steers through an unprecedented six-person Republican gubernatorial field that also includes Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, businessman Eric Doden, former state Attorney General Curtis Hill and Indianapolis mom Jamie Reitenour.
Normally, Hoosier Republicans coalesce around a single candidate for an open governor’s race, often turning a simple candidacy into a movement. But not this time.
Past Republican nominees and governors were not outsiders — they were ultimate insiders. Edgar Whitcomb sought the office while serving as secretary of state; Doc Bowen as speaker of the House; Richard O. Ristine, Robert Orr and John Mutz as lieutenant governors; Linley Pearson as attorney general; David McIntosh and Mike Pence as congressmen; Mitch Daniels as an outgoing White House budget director; and Eric Holcomb as a former aide to Daniels, U.S. Rep. John Hostettler and U.S. Sen. Dan Coats (before becoming a state GOP chair and then lieutenant governor).
Toward the end of the first homestretch debate at the Carmel Palladium on March 11, Hill wondered why Braun was seeking the governor’s office if his one term in the U.S. Senate had been so successful.
“I thought he was very well equipped for the job,” Hill said. “He talks about how tough it is in D.C. I want him to go back and continue the fight; he gave up the fight. Will he give up the fight as governor?”
Braun responded, “I spent 37 years building a little scrappy business into a regional, national and international company. And that is what I ran for Senate on. It resonated overwhelmingly. If you like me as your senator, you’ll like me better as governor.”
Throughout Indiana history, former governors — from Oliver P. Morton to Evan Bayh — found career-end refuge in the U.S. Senate. Braun is doing it in reverse.
“You know why?” he asked in his unassuming office at his company Meyer Distributing in Jasper. “Because they’re from the farm system of politics. The people who got done being governor just weren’t done with politics. They wanted to continue. My blessing is I did something in the real world first before I decided to get into politics at a level of significance.”
Asked if he is more of an executive than a legislator, Braun responded, “I feel I’m good at both because legislatively I knew what to get done as a legislator. I passed a unique regional authority bill that helped us down here on a road project we talked about for 40 years in the abstract. To me, if you’re an entrepreneur, you know how to get from here to there.”
During the Carmel debate, Braun called himself the “most fiscally conservative” Republican and a freshman who has been honored by independent groups for passing legislation. Chambers reminded him: “You’ve been in the Senate for an additional $7 trillion to $9 trillion in borrowing.”
Asked if he would like to make a rebuttal, Braun said, “I think I’ve got one,” while the audience laughed.
Braun is proud of his Senate record. “I base that mostly upon all the hard work invested as a senator, but a record that is generally resonating with Hoosiers and the fact that I visit all 92 counties each year,” he said. “Something you probably aren’t aware of, but we recently announced we’ve completed 11,000 cases for Hoosiers. We did that on behalf of veterans, immigration, Social Security and the whole spectrum of how you can get entangled with the federal government. That is one of the proudest parts of being a U.S. senator.
“It’s very important for anyone who wants to lead our state [that they’d] better be there with a track record,” he said at the Carmel debate. “You won’t have to figure out what they might do when they say they want to aspire to something like this. You need to be willing to flesh out those ideas. Of anyone on the stage here, I have the most recent track record on what’s happened, when you have to vote, what you’re really for, not what you say you’re going to be for.”
“I think when [Braun] talks about being a proven conservative, he’s served in the U.S. Senate for six years and has votes that can reaffirm that,” Laura Merrifield Wilson, an associate professor in the History & Political Science department at the University of Indianapolis, told State Affairs. “He had been in the General Assembly before that and could point to certain things. That’s going to help especially with your Republican primary in the state of Indiana, which is going to be very heavily conservative.”
Braun and the city of Jasper
To understand what makes Mike Braun tick, you have to travel to Jasper, a small city about an hour northeast of Evansville. “I have been blessed to be raised in a place like Jasper,” he said during the Carmel debate. “It’s a community based on faith, family, freedom and opportunity.”
Braun left Jasper to attend Wabash College and then earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University. He said many of his classmates went to Wall Street or Silicon Valley, but he headed back home. He bought what he calls a “hardscrabble” company — Meyer Body — and built it into a sprawling 1,500-employee national enterprise that distributes various products, from auto parts to industrial supplies.
“There’s no substitute about seeing the context of where you’re coming from,” the 70-year-old said last November during a walking tour of this 270,000-square-foot complex. “My major piece of work — you’re looking at it right here.”
In Hoosier politics, a candidate for governor most likely points to his public service record, which in Braun’s case is his 10 years on the local school board, three years in the Indiana House and five-plus years in the U.S. Senate. But he attributes much of his policy underpinnings to the seven acres in Jasper that are home to Meyer Distributing. It is a beehive of activity, with beeping forklifts and transporters shifting and loading product onto tractor-trailers while Aerosmith rock music blares in the background.
It was here 15 years ago where he pursued a new path toward providing more cost-effective health care options for his employees that has transformed his viewpoint on commodity-draining states and private industries. “I fixed health care in my own business, have healthier employees, cut costs 15 years ago, created health care consumers out of my employees and know some of the things I can do for coverage of our own state employees,” he said.
“We’ve got one of the highest health care costs of any state and some of the poorest health care outcomes,” Braun added.
Will that translate to 6.8 million Hoosiers? Can you take those fundamental building blocks on health coverage and bring them to the masses?
“Sure, you can,” he responded. “That’s owning your own health care and well-being. That’s basically what I did here. I gave the best tools to my employees to do that. I put skin in the game on their minor health care to where they shop around for the small stuff, and they’ve got the best coverage when they get critically ill or have a bad accident. Insurance companies told me all of that. They were making so much money on our plan back then I decided to self-insure and basically solved health care as most companies would love to do, but had to be entrepreneurial. I just basically took what the insurance companies told me, saw how much money they were making covering my business, created it as a cost center and not a profit center and that’s how I fixed things.”
What would a Gov. Mike Braun administration look like?
“What I’ll bring to bear as the governor will be someone who will be entrepreneurial politically,” Braun said. “To me, if you’re a good entrepreneur, politics is easier than building a business. It’s just got tighter compression in terms of the political hurdles you need to jump.”
On his campaign website, Braun expresses optimism about Indiana’s future and says his concerns for the next generation’s welfare are driving his run for governor. Having served Hoosiers in Washington, he believes that solutions to the state’s issues lie locally, not with “special interests and career politicians in D.C.”
Braun has laid out a 12-point agenda that includes growing Hoosier jobs and the economy; improving education; implementing affordable health care; embracing reliable, affordable and clean energy; preserving agriculture; and cutting taxes while reducing the size of government.
His campaign website also addresses hot-button issues:
- “Put kids first” by “making sure divisive theories like critical race theory or discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity have no place in our public schools.”
- “Protect parental rights”: He will fight to “protect the rights of parents to shield their children from divisive ideologies by ensuring parents have transparent access and meaningful input on curriculum and materials in our schools.”
- “Stand up to woke corporations”: He says, “ESG [environmental, social and governance] puts investors and retirees at financial risk and will have no place in the Indiana state government.”
- “Pro-life means pro-family”: “State lawmakers must work to ensure the gains we have made to protect life are secured and strengthened, while working to help mothers and their infants receive the care and social support they deserve to ensure a healthy start to life.”
- “Standing with law enforcement”: He vows “to make sure the justice system is not failing them [law enforcement] by refusing to detain dangerous criminals, manipulating the bail system, and intentionally refusing to enforce laws based on a political ideology.”
- “Securing our southern border”: Braun explains, “Joe Biden and the left have created a humanitarian and national security crisis on our southern border. [I] will work to fund solutions that keep criminals and drugs, like fentanyl, from entering our country.”
- “Defend our constitutional rights”: “The rights of law-abiding gun owners, the freedom to practice our religion, and the rights of parents to protect their children from leftist ideology are under attack.” He says he “will never waver when it comes to defending every Hoosier’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
- “Election security and reform”: “The right of Americans to cast their vote in fair and secure elections is essential to the survival of our Republic. Hoosiers must trust that our elections are free from fraud and guarantee that every legal vote is counted accurately.”
- “No more mandates or lockdowns”: “The lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic were a disaster for our state and led to business closures, job losses, mental health issues, learning loss, and still failed to protect the most vulnerable. As Governor, Mike Braun will never lockdown our state, mandate masks for our kids, or tell someone their job or business is not essential.”
At the Palladium on March 11, Braun added that the government “came up with the term ‘you’re essential; you’re not essential’” during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I never thought that would happen in our own Hoosier State,” he said. “When you have that type of bureaucratic determination, try to explain that to my wife and all the other merchants in downtown Jasper. They were out of business for a long time. You never know when it’s going to creep into your own state. It was very disappointing.”
Endorsed by Trump
Braun possesses one important element in his primary race: the imprimatur of Donald Trump. “I can tell you that every one of my opponents would have loved to have the endorsement in a state like Indiana,” he said in his Jasper office.
When Trump endorsed Braun, the former president was facing 91 criminal charges in two federal jurisdictions and two in Manhattan and Georgia (since reduced to 88 when three charges were dropped in Atlanta).
“There’s a political intertwining,” Braun said of the charges facing Trump, who the senator has twice voted to acquit during Senate impeachment trials. Following his 2021 acquittal vote, Braun said, “The riot on January 6th was horrific and should be universally condemned, and while I listened to both President Trump’s defense and the House Managers’ arguments, I believe it is unconstitutional to hold a trial to remove a former President from an office he no longer holds and feel a vote to convict would have deep negative implications for the First Amendment and due process.”
“Whether those indictments get parlayed into a conviction, I’m just extrapolating what I see Republican primary voters are doing,” he said. “I don’t think that makes much difference.”
In the days leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, Sen. Braun was supportive of efforts to challenge Electoral College certification. But after the Trump-inspired mob overran the U.S. Capitol, assaulting more than 150 cops while seeking to hunt down Vice President Mike Pence, Braun reversed course, saying he “didn’t feel comfortable with today’s events.” He said election integrity is “still a valid issue.”
Since Jan. 6, Trump has talked about nullifying the U.S. Constitution and called for the execution of the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley. Does that type of rhetoric concern Braun?
“Obviously, that stuff is not the stuff I would put out there,” he responded during the November tour of his company. “I think that hurts rather than helps the cause because it further polarizes the people that might even like his policies. That’s a difference in approach. I respect everyone’s ability on how they’re going to sell themselves. I would stick on looking at the record in terms of the way it was pre-COVID, and the stuff you can’t change, I don’t know really what the point would be to further talk about it, because you can’t fix it. That toothpaste is out of the tube.”
Wilson of the University of Indianapolis said of Braun: “He’s been able to effectively align himself with Donald Trump. He did that back in 2018, in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate against Todd Rokita and Luke Messer. He was clearly the Trump candidate, and that plays well in Indiana, where Donald Trump has won by 20% in the last few presidential election cycles.”
What type of governor would Braun be?
When Mike Braun served on the local school board, Mitch Daniels was governor. During Braun’s three-year General Assembly tenure, Mike Pence and Eric Holcomb were governors. What did he glean from their leadership styles?
“I’ll be able to distill best practices,” he said. “Look what Mitch Daniels did. He came in 2004, he inherited a budget that was in the red that had been run recently by Democrats. So he had to get the state’s financial cash flowing. And then you look at what he did when he started to address issues. We are the ‘Crossroads of America’ and we weren’t even funding roads the right way. Almost every penny of the fuel tax was being spent on other stuff. He started fixing things that would have been most apparent that needed to be fixed.”
Braun noted that Gov. Daniels wasn’t afraid to spend political capital.
“One reason he did that with good leadership, besides the fact that he’s a brilliant mind, was he was also willing to take risks,” Braun said. “If you’re not willing to take risks, you’re going to be in a broad band of mediocracy, whether it’s in business or government. You don’t want to take on too much; you want to leave your neck intact politically and operationally, and he was willing to do that. I think Pence and Holcomb inherited a much better-run state government and have enhanced it in their own ways since then.
“The difference between me and a Pence or a Holcomb would be [that] I spent my time in the trenches of building a business from scratch,” added Braun, who said he will continue to invite anyone to Jasper on Fridays to talk about issues. “That’s why I took time to show you.”
Statehouse reporter Rory Appleton contributed to this story.
about Braun
- Age: 70
- Hometown: Jasper, Indiana
- Education: Master of Business Administration, Harvard Business School (1978); Wabash College (1976)
- Family: Married to Maureen Braun since 1976, with four children, Ashley, Kristen, Jason and Jeff
- Job: U.S senator from Indiana since 2019
- Work history: Member of the Indiana House of Representatives from the 63rd district from 2014 to 2017; owner of Meyer Distributing (formerly Meyer Body) since the mid-1980s
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Brian Howey is senior writer and columnist for Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs. Find Howey on Facebook and X @hwypol.