Republican Mike Braun is leaving the relative calm of the United States Senate to make a run for governor of Indiana, and he’s learning how screwed up state Republican Party operations actually are. Case in point: according to the Indianapolis Star, the delegates to the state’s GOP convention rejected Braun’s choice to be his lieutenant governor and are forcing him to pair with a local minister.
Braun wanted state legislator Julie McGuire to be his running mate for the top of the ticket in November, but delegates instead matched him with Noblesville pastor Micah Beckwith who ran a campaign among the delegates stressing their need to be independent of the Governor-nominee and force Braun to select him. It worked: the delegates vetoed McGuire and inserted Beckwith onto the ticket against Braun’s will, and now Braun is stuck with him.