Q&A: Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Braun

Senator Mike Braun is the likely next-of-kin to Indiana’s gubernatorial throne, but polls are beginning to show his race to return to state politics is narrowing.

Braun began his career in government in the Indiana Statehouse when elected in 2014 and stayed in Indiana until he resigned from his seat in 2017 to begin what would be his successful campaign for U.S. Senate.

He is Trump-endorsed and a part of several senate committees, including the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Polls have been tilting in Braun’s favor for a return to state government, with the most recent polling from nonpartisan group ActiVote showing that Braun holds a steady 8% lead against his opponent Jennifer McCormick.

But those numbers represent a dip from Emerson College polling in September, which held him at an 11% advantage. Democratic-funded polling by the Democratic Governors Association, also in September, implied a tighter race, with Braun holding only a 3% lead.

Freedom and Opportunity
The Exponent has reached out for sit-down interviews with all of the gubernatorial candidates.

Braun's campaign initially confirmed an interview in Fort Wayne during the first leg of his “Freedom & Opportunity” Bus Tour.

The tour, headlined by the outgoing Senator, also featured candidates for the House, attorney general and local positions.

As Exponent reporters traveled to Fort Wayne, the interview was canceled and rescheduled to be a phone call later in the week. Event organizers of the “Freedom & Opportunity” tour told the reporters that Braun would not answer questions at the event.

Braun appeared early at the Allen County GOP Headquarters in the heart of downtown Fort Wayne to talk to rally-goers, telling them he had attended a baseball game at a local high school and stayed at a local state representative's house.

As he ascended to the pedestal inside of the headquarters, only about 40 people were in attendance to hear him speak.

When his Democratic opponent, Jennifer McCormick, visited the West Lafayette Public Library in September, more than a hundred people filled the room, with many having to stand.

A week after the event, Braun gave the Exponent 8 minutes to interview him.

The Q&A

Q: Can you introduce yourself?

I'm Senator Mike Braun from Jasper, Indiana. Been serving in the U.S. Senate, elected in November of '18. Served in our state legislature, '15, '16 and '17 and was on our local school board from '04 to '14.

Q: Purdue is currently unable to hold an on-campus voting location on Election Day. I want to ask you, should Purdue have a voting location and what will you do to protect the voting rights of Hoosiers?

In terms of where voting locations are, that's generally going to be the bailiwick of the local election board, and I don't know that the state gets involved in that. I'd be curious as to why it changed. I think voting needs to be convenient and easy to do, so that would be my general point of view. Weighing in on why a decision was made: unless there weren't enough voters at that location that justified having a place to vote. (I) don't know much about the context, all I can tell you is you should err on the side of making it easy, not hard.

Q: What role do you think college students play in this race?

I think it's important. I mean, it's the future of our state and our country, and I want to make sure that I sell a form of entrepreneurial conservatism that wants to make sure we don't borrow money from our kids and grandkids, but as a conservative or a Republican, that we are fully engaged in the issues to where we actually are creative to where we're trying to get more done with fewer resources. That's the key mark of an entrepreneur in the real world, and I think college students are trying to look for how you do things better ... At the national level, I want to make sure that Indiana runs a responsive, value-based government, and I would think anybody would be interested in that, especially college kids.

Q: The proposed LEAP water pipeline, if passed, would affect Tippecanoe County. What is your stance on the pipeline?

I think that has been solved, because I didn't think it made sense to transfer water from one watershed to another and I think (Citizens Energy Group) has managed to put the water together from its collective network of wells to where it's not coming from Tippecanoe County. I didn't like (the pipeline), because I think water resources now from Lafayette all the way down to the south side of Indy. We may not have much more than what we could afford to give up to just normal growth, let alone the ones that are water-intensive. The only places that can really handle water-intensive new businesses or demands on it are in the northern one-third or fourth of our state that's blessed with great lakes and glaciated aquifers, and then roughly 40 miles in from the Ohio River. Anywhere else, you simply don't have the water available, and I think it was valid for Tippecanoe County to worry about not giving from their source to another when it doesn't drain back the other way.

Q: I'm sure you've seen that polls have recently shown a narrowing race. I want to ask about your chances and what you're seeing on the campaign trail.

It would have narrowed from the point where they removed Biden from the ticket. That levitated all down ballot races to be five to seven points tighter, but that was definable in terms of what caused it. Now that Harris and Walz have been out on full view, it's actually going the other way. It constricted down ballot races — we’re closer to the margin of error. Now they're climbing out of it in the right direction. Campaigns react, even if you don't get help on the national level, but I think the national ticket is now starting to put some space between where it was post-DNC convention, and I think the national races and the gubernatorial races are all headed (to the right), and we’ve seen that over the last three weeks.

Q: Your lieutenant governor pick has called for red flag laws to go away, and on the debate stage, your opponent, Jennifer McCormick, said that was also your stance. Do you believe in red flag laws?

She’s been running against my lieutenant governor more than she's been running against me, because she knows my policies are resonating. I think we've got a red flag law that may need to be fine tuned to where it's actually being implemented by some of our prosecutors that have kind of not done their job. But no, as long as there's due process, red flag laws are important, and I think most Second Amendment folks would agree with that.

Q: Why should Purdue students vote for you?

Well if they want someone that is going to be entrepreneurial, that’s going to run government more efficiently, that is going to be about freedom and opportunity, that has run a business successfully, you'd think that you'd want the governor to have the experience of at least signing the front side of a paycheck, if you want to actually make the 80 agencies run more efficiently, provide better service to our Hoosier constituents. I don't think my two opponents, Libertarian or Democrat, had that experience on their resume. I certainly do. I ran a little business for a long time, built it into a regional and then national company ... I think that right there, and a successful record in the U.S. Senate, three years a legislator and 10 years on a local school board, that's plenty of government tutorial to be a governor.