INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican U.S. Senator Mike Braun on Wednesday officially launched a committee to campaign for governor of his home state of Indiana in 2024, foregoing re-election for his Senate seat.
Braun, the 68-year-old wealthy founder of a nationwide auto parts distribution company, is the most prominent of several potential Republican candidates to succeed Republican Governor Eric Holcomb, who is barred from running for re-election because of term limits.
Braun would be the clear favorite for a second term in the Senate in 2024 in the Republican-dominated state of Indiana, after financing his successful 2018 Senate campaign with private loans of more than $11 million to transform himself from a little-known businessman into the successor to Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly.
Josh Kelley, Braun’s chief of staff and senior political adviser, confirmed the campaign’s filing with the Indiana Elections Board and said in an email that Braun “will make an official announcement of his candidacy very soon.”
Braun was a strong supporter of then-President Donald Trump during the 2018 campaign and has often aligned himself closely with the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate Republicans while bemoaning the pace of the Senate’s deliberations. He supported Florida Senator Rick Scott’s failed attempt this month to oust Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, saying in a statement that “conservative Republicans in Indiana are fed up with the status quo.”
Braun had announced that he would vote against accepting Electoral College votes from some states that Democrat Joe Biden won against Trump in the 2020 election. But after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he changed his mind, saying the violence had “changed things drastically” and that he would “vote to put this ugly day behind us.”
He recently distanced himself from his Indiana Republican colleagues and publicly condemned Holcomb’s March decision to veto a Republican-backed bill banning transgender girls from participating on girls’ sports teams in Indiana.
Braun also distanced himself from Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who won re-election in November by voting Tuesday against a bill that would protect same-sex and interracial marriages nationwide. Braun had told reporters earlier this year that the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong in its 1967 decision legalizing interracial marriage nationwide, while later saying he had misunderstood the issue.
State Democratic leader Mike Schmuhl criticized Braun’s vote on the marriage bill and his opposition to Biden’s stimulus package to combat COVID-19.
“Mike Braun did very little to improve Indiana as a U.S. Senator, and he certainly will not do so as governor,” Schmuhl said in a statement. “Braun’s half-hearted efforts were ineffective, and he was more likely to be seen on national television shows than in real life talking to Indiana residents about solving real problems.”
There are many possible candidates for the vacant governor’s seat in Indiana.
Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch, who was Holcomb’s running mate in 2016 and 2020, has raised more than $2 million for an unannounced campaign, and Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden has raised a similar amount since launching his campaign last year.
Republican U.S. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth hinted at a possible run for other political office when he announced in January that he would not seek re-election. And some Republicans hope former Gov. Mitch Daniels will seek a return to the statehouse after resigning as president of Purdue University in late December.
Braun said two weeks ago that he would not be discouraged by the possible Republican candidates for governor and would no longer spend any of his own money on the 2024 election campaign.
Two Republicans reportedly interested in running for the Senate seat if Braun does not seek re-election are U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, who unsuccessfully ran for a top Republican post in the House earlier this month, and U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz.
Discussions about possible Democratic candidates for the 2024 state election center on Donnelly, who currently serves as President Joe Biden’s ambassador to the Vatican, and former state Education Secretary Jennifer McCormick, who won election as a Republican in 2016 but switched parties after disagreements with Republican politicians in the statehouse over education policy.
