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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.
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Braun is off to a shakey start when he refers to Trump as the “former “ president. Trump prefers to be called “President” in keeping with the Big Lie that the election was stolen from him, forcing him out of the White House. Such a faux pax doesn’t bother me, though, as I have no intention of wasting my vote on Braun or anyone else endorsed by the twice impeached, four-time indicted ex-president.
If it doesn’t bother you, why did you offer your opinion?
Trumps policies increased the deficit $7.8 trillion while taking away women’s rights, doing nothing to fix the border, and creating more hate and division in this country. Trump failed on promises for infrastructure, health care, prescription drugs, and lowering crime. Trump mismanaged Covid resulting in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. No thanks on more so called conservative policies and constant GOP lies.
COVID deaths are Biden’s legacy – look it up
Wrong! Biden did everything he could to get vaccines in people ASAP. Studies have shown unvaccinated have higher death rates than vaccinated.
Ah, yes. It’s Biden’s fault that the response to COVID was so shoddy when he wasn’t President. Yes, that makes sense.
Any candidate honored by Trump needs a brain replacement! Honored by a criminal, a rapist and an insurrectionist traitor? Braun is a worthless human being, looking for favor from another worthless being.
What will you do when Trump is re-elected?
Indeed
Why does IBJ give Trump any “air” time. I suspect with all of his lawyers realizing they might go to jail in Georgia, that the case against this would be insurrectionist is getting pretty strong.
I guess I just answered my own question. Nobody can look away from a train wreck in progress.
Why does IBJ provide “air” time for your irrelevant opinion? You’re a train wreck in your own right and nobody wants to look at you except for yourself.
Birds of a feather….
Vote for dims and keep minorities on the plantation
I’m beginning to think that Mike D is actually Donald T!
Or Mike Braun.
Weirdo
Trump supports Mike Braun because Braun is against “woke fascist mobs”? Does that mean Trump and Braun are now Antifa supporters? Since when?
Considering Mike Braun is a key supporter of Tuberville’s effort to reduce our military readiness by making key commanders work two jobs until they literally drop (get well soon, Gen. Smith), I’d hate to see what efforts he’d make at the state level to improve Indiana that would only go to make Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky more appealing places for businesses and residents to locate.
Like Tuberville, Braun isn’t capable of big picture thinking. Maybe he had it during his business career, but being a businessman doesn’t mean you have the capacity or the vision needed. Braun has accomplished nothing for voters as a Senator.
IBJ “Journalists” are you going to run a Breaking!! headline when Biden endorses the Squad and their newest member Andre Carson?
Well, considering that he hasn’t endorsed anyone in “The Squad” or Carson, and probably won’t given that they voted against the resolution he supported, the IBJ probably won’t run that headline. But you can keep being mad about things you made up.
Vote Doden. An outsider with a published platform. http://www.dodenforindiana.com
Doden’s platform is filled with social issues. Why you need a businessman to implement a Christian nationalist vision for Indiana is beyond me.
How about less worry about abortion and banning library books and more worry about crummy roads and falling test scores?
I think it doesn’t make any difference. They will all promise you 1 thing & when elected do whatever they feel like. O they will do what’s going to help them get re-elected. There are precious few politicians who actually care & will actually keep their promises. We will never know if Democrats rigged the Presidential election. Because there hasn’t been a trusted 3rd party doing the research. Of course, the Democrats are going to say there wasn’t anything. Also, if a democrat did what Trump did, it wouldn’t even be an issue. It’s why Hillary never went to jail for what she did. If she was a Republican, she would be serving many years by now.