Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
John Rust, a wealthy egg farmer from Seymour, is plowing ahead with his U.S. Senate bid even as Indiana statute would appear to prevent him from getting on the Republican primary ballot.
Under a 2021 state law, Democratic and Republican candidates must have voted with their party in the past two primary elections, or receive approval from the party chair in the county where they reside, to get their name on a primary election ballot.
Rust, who registered as a Republican with the Federal Election Commission in July, did not vote in the past two Republican primaries, and Jackson County GOP Chair Amanda Lowery told IBJ she has no plans to sign off on his candidacy.
“We have a practice in place that we don’t sign off on candidates that have a Democratic primary voting history,” Lowery said.
Rust—the chairman of the board of Seymour-based Rose Acre Farms, the country’s largest family-owned egg producer—told IBJ he voted in several Democratic primaries between 2006 and 2012 because he wanted to support local candidates.
“I voted [Democratic] because I knew people personally that I attended church with for local precincts,” Rust said.
“Back then, the Democratic Party was still for the working man and for the farmer, but you know, it’s different now,” he added, while also claiming that he “always voted for Republican candidates” in general elections.
His candidacy faces other obstacles. The Indiana GOP has already endorsed Third Congressional District Rep. Jim Banks, who is running to replace U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, who is pursuing a gubernatorial bid.
Banks’ campaign has launched an offensive against the longshot candidate. The first result that comes up in a Google search of John Rust’s name is a link to donate to Banks’ campaign with the headline, “RINO John Rust – Woke John Rust.”
“Indiana deserves a real Republican who fights for Hoosier values, not liberal John Rust,” a description below the link reads. “Anti-Trump John Rust won’t fight for Indiana values and won’t put America First.”
If Rust decides to file paperwork in January to get on the Republican ballot, his candidacy will likely be challenged. He would then have to request a hearing before the Indiana Election Commission.
Republican and Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate also need to receive 500 certified signatures from registered voters in each of Indiana’s nine congressional districts by Feb. 6.
Rust, a self-proclaimed gay Christian conservative, is not backing down despite these hurdles. He released his first campaign video last week on social media in which he denounced the Democratic “cult of identity politics” while positioning himself as an outsider candidate.
But he’s also ruling out the possibility of running as an independent in the general election should his name be removed from the Republican ballot.
“I’m a conservative Republican, and I believe I will be on the ballot. I really sincerely do.”
A recent ruling from the Indiana Supreme Court is throwing more cold water on Rust’s lofty ambitions.
The state’s highest court last week denied an appeal from Charles Bookwalter, who was removed from the May 2022 primary ballot after his primary voting record revealed that he did not vote Republican in the two most recent primary elections. Bookwalter was challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Jim Baird in Indiana’s 4th Congressional District.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
For clarification: Indiana voters and candidates do not “register” as a party member. Voters choose their party in primary elections. That defines their party choice until the next primary. Primary voters can also choose to vote only on non-partisan (referendum) issue sin a primary, if such a choice is available.
The legal hurdles John Rust faces brings to light the lengths to which the Indiana Republican Party will go to in keeping a tight grip on its statewide power. With its super majority in the state legislature, what the Republican powers want the Republican powers get. It is anathema to the party to let voters have a say in who ought to be its nominee. When a party incumbent dies or resigns, the party’s central committee picks the preferred placement. When a registered Republican wants to run for the Senate, the party imposes a law that the candidate must have voted in the two prior primaries to be on the ballot. To say the Indianapolis Republican Party is akin to the Politburo in the Kremlin is an understatement. Like the Politburo, Indiana Republicans fear losing their grip on their power.
Indiana’s Republican Party is completely broken, has been for more than a decade. As a former life long Republican, like many I look at these supposed Republicans with great suspicion on about everything they do these days. It’s a dark era of time in Indiana politics, and only new blood will fix these issues over the next ten or more years.