Mitch Daniels defends lawmakers facing primary challenges over redistricting vote

Former Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels is lending his political will and name power to help campaign for current Republican state lawmakers being primaried by Trump-supported candidates.

Daniels told WFYI on Tuesday when asked, he is happy to lend support for those lawmakers who voted against redistricting late last year and are now trying to keep their seats in the statehouse.

“I admire courage and conviction, people acting out of principle,” Daniels said. “I admire it even if I don't necessarily agree with the principle that they're defending. We saw people under brutal pressure from outside Indiana being threatened, cursed at, just things I think don't belong in our politics.”

Some lawmakers who voted against mid-decade redistricting late last year were victims of swatting attempts after facing public attacks from President Donald Trump.

Daniels has been vocal before on his opposition to the state’s mid-decade redistricting push.

Indiana statehouse primary races are typically quiet. However this year’s races are seeing threats from groups who supported redistricting, saying they would spend thousands of dollars to support the primary challengers.

Online attack ads supported by the U.S. Sen. Jim Banks-connected group, Hoosier Leadership for America, are now running online against at least five state senators who voted against redistricting.

Daniels sees these kinds of attacks as forces outside of Indiana trying to influence state races and push a national agenda instead of focusing on the concerns of Hoosier voters.

“I think it's important that people who are fine public servants and have shown it in other contexts, who stood up for a principle here and showed bravery in so doing, that ought to be rewarded, not punished, and it's certainly not going to be punished by people from several hundred miles away who couldn't find Indiana with a road map,” Daniels said.

He worries that if the primary challengers win, it would mean losing what he views as “fine legislators” in the statehouse.

“It would be a very unfortunate precedent about the way we're going to pick people in the state,” Daniels said.

Other notable Indiana Republicans are also distancing themselves from the national party, including former-Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard who is now running for Indiana’s Secretary of State, as an independent.

Despite these heated primaries, Daniels said he believes that Indiana’s Republican Party is in “good shape” and that the failed redistricting vote actually places the state in a positive light.

Daniels specifically pointed to Senate President Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville) as an example of strong leadership in Indiana. Bray faced public attacks from Trump, but is not up for election until 2028.

“I think that their decision to politely decline to try to rig the game and gerrymander the heck out of the state in the middle of the decade did us a lot of good nationally the reputation of the state,” Daniels said.

Indiana’s primary election is May 5. 

Contact Government Reporter Caroline Beck at cbeck@wfyi.org