With the Republican nomination settled, the race for Indiana secretary of state has become a four-candidate fall contest, and an early fight is already taking shape over who should be allowed to vote in the state’s primaries.
Republicans nominated Max Engling at their Fort Wayne convention Saturday, where he won on the second ballot with 867 votes to 627 for Knox County Clerk David Shelton. Incumbent Diego Morales finished a distant third. The result set Engling against Democrat Beau Bayh, Libertarian Lauri Shillings and former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who is petitioning to appear on the November ballot as an independent under the Lincoln Party banner.
Engling, a 39-year-old aide to U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, said he would not be distracted by the rest of the field. “If Ballard is on the ballot, he’s on the ballot,” he told reporters, pledging to run as “one Republican team.” His first move, he said, would be pushing legislation already pending at the Statehouse to close Indiana’s primaries, arguing only Republicans should pick Republican nominees. He also listed verifying that only citizens vote and cracking down on shell trucking companies he says are set up to commit business fraud.
Bayh, a son of former governor and U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, enters the general election with more than $2.5 million raised and a change message. In a statement after the convention, he said Hoosiers were tired of “corruption, insider dealing, and waste of taxpayer money,” and cast Engling as a creature of the party insiders who elevated him. No Democrat has won a statewide race in Indiana since 2014.
The wild card is Ballard, who says his independent campaign has already gathered more than 52,000 signatures — far beyond the threshold for ballot access — with more than a week left to collect them. He framed the bid as a rebuke of both major parties.
“Here we are, 900 people just selected a candidate,” Ballard said, contrasting the convention’s delegate count with his petition total. “Both parties are closing everybody else off right now, and we’re opening it up.” He has promised a nonpartisan office that does not endorse or fundraise for candidates, and he opposes Engling’s drive to close the primaries.
Ballard’s ballot effort carries a complication that remains unresolved. The Hamilton County Republican chairman has called for the prosecution of a Ballard volunteer over forged signatures turned in earlier this month, a matter now with prosecutors. Ballard has said the system caught the problem as it was designed to, and questioned how the documents reached the county GOP chairman in the first place.
Engling will lead a Republican statewide ticket without a governor or U.S. Senate race at the top of the ballot — a dynamic that historically depresses turnout for the party in power. Republicans have swept every statewide office on the ballot since 2014, and Banks-aligned groups have spent heavily this cycle to enforce party discipline.
The general election is in November.
