Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Sen. Mike Braun to be the next governor of Indiana.
In a statement on Truth Social, the former president’s social media platform, Trump said he was proud to support the “highly respected” U.S. senator who is “working hard to Support our Law Enforcement, Secure Our Borders, and Stop the Woke Fascist Mob trying to destroy our country.”
Braun is running in a crowded primary of prominent Republicans trying to gain the party’s nomination in 2024. The field includes Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, former Attorney General Curtis Hill, former state Commerce Secretary Brad Chambers and former Indiana Economic Development Corp. President Eric Doden.
“I am honored to have former President Donald J. Trump’s endorsement, as together we enacted the America First conservative economic agenda that lowered taxes, created good-paying Hoosier jobs, confirmed constitutionalists on the Supreme Court who protected life, and began building the wall to reduce illegal immigration,” Braun posted on the social media platform X. “Like him, I’m a businessman who got involved in politics because I was worried about the direction of America and the politicians who failed to put the people first.”
Braun earned Trump’s endorsement despite being backed by Club for Growth, a conservative group that opposed two Trump-endorsed candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, creating a rift between the former president and the influential organization, Trump advisers told the Washington Post.
Americans for Prosperity, a super PAC that supports conservative candidates, has also endorsed Braun.
Together, the two organizations spent $113 million in the 2020 general election and $150 million in the 2022 midterms, according to Open Secrets, a Washington, D.C.-based not-for-profit that tracks campaign finance data.
Since announcing he would not seek a second term in Congress, Braun, who self-funded much of his 2018 run, raised more than $2.2 million in the first half of the year, but several of his GOP rivals also have healthy campaign coffers, setting the stage for an expensive primary election.
A 2022 internal poll for the senator showed Braun would win a theoretical Republican primary with 47% of the vote, compared to 10% for Crouch and 5% for Doden. More than one-third of voters, though, were undecided, and Chambers and Hill weren’t included in the survey.
The campaign for Jennifer McCormick, the likely Democratic nominee, released its own poll showing Braun would fare best against her in the general election, ahead of Crouch and Hill, although Chambers and Doden weren’t included in the poll.
Trump, who won Indiana with 56% of the vote in 2016 and 57% in 2020, also endorsed Braun during his 2018 U.S. Senate run against incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly, an election Braun won by six percentage points.
Gov. Eric Holcomb, a two-term governor who is prohibited by law from seeking a third consecutive term, has held off on endorsing a successor.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.