2 weeks Ago
JASPER, Ind. – Mike Braun's election as the state's 52nd governor came because of his small town roots as a businessman. On Tuesday, Braun mowed through rural Indiana like a Pentagon daisy cutter on his way to notching a decisive 54.
5% to 40% victory over Democrat Jennifer McCormick, while Libertarian Donald Rainwater came in at 4.5%. Braun’s win will bring the current and historic GOP gubernatorial dynasty to five terms.
He told Republicans gathered at the JW Marriott, “I know our state has four corners. I come from one of them. And I’m going to make sure that all of us as Hoosiers prosper.
I’m so anxious to hit the ground running." After graduating from Wabash College and Harvard, he and his wife Maureen rejected the notion of heading to Wall Street or Silicon Valley and returned to this bustling city of 16,000 people. He took a small family-owned business — Meyer Distributing — and turned it into one of the city's largest employers.
His small Hoosier town origins gave him the bearings to win a U.S. Senate seat in 2018 and now the governor's office.
He defeated two congressmen in the Senate primary, then U.S. Sen.
Joe Donnelly. This year, he topped a sitting lieutenant governor, a former attorney general, two self-funding former Commerce secretaries in the primary and then the former superintendent of public instruction. While Braun did well in GOP strongholds in Fort Wayne and the Indianapolis doughnut counties, he mauled the Democrats in rural areas, following the same national trend that brought Donald Trump a second presidential victory.
Braun won Rush County with 66.9%, Noble with 67.7%, Miami with 65.
7% and Steuben with 66.2%. Braun won McCormick’s home county of Henry with 63% and lieutenant governor nominee Terry Goodin’s home county of Scott with 56.
9%. In counties where McCormick and Goodin served as local school superintendents and voters would know them intricately, Braun carried Delaware 49.9% to 45.
7% (where McCormick headed Yorktown schools) and Jackson with 69.4% (where Goodin led Crothersville schools). Throughout Hoosier history, past governors, ranging from Oliver P.
Morton to Evan Bayh, have gone from the governor’s office to the U.S. Senate.
Braun has twisted that, heading back to Indiana after six years in DC. “You know why?” he asks. “Because they’re from the farm system of politics.
” Braun's identity is that of a businessman and he intends to run the state like a business. “I fixed health care in my own business, have healthier employees, cut costs 15 years ago, created health care consumers out of my employees, and know some of the things I can do for coverage of our own state employees,” he said. Braun has said that he will spend his Fridays in Jasper, inviting folks down to talk.
I found Sen. Braun in his office in the “old building” when I paid such a visit. The cramped office had the trappings of an industrial middle manager, except there is a U.
S. Senate logo on the wall behind his desk, which features a tripod and a camera for making videos. There are three chairs in front of his desk.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts This sprawling company was a beehive of activity, with beeping forklifts and transporters shifting product on to tractor-trailers, while Aerosmith rock music blared in the background. He appeared to be on a first-name basis with his employees. “There’s no substitute about seeing the context of where you’re coming from,” Braun said during a walking tour last year of this 270,000 square feet complex.
“My major piece of work, you’re looking at it right here.” He has promised to be "transparent and accessible." Throughout the campaign, Braun regularly availed himself to Statehouse reporters.
He is not a flashy guy; he's friendly, frank and to the point. What’s a typical Mike Braun work day? "Go to bed late, get up early," he said. "I’m lucky I can thrive on that.
" When I asked him what a Gov. Braun administration would look like, he described how new 8th District congressman Mark Meissmer suggested he run for the Indiana House in 2013. "That’s how I became a legislator," Braun said.
"I got some novel legislation done. I was honored when Ed Soliday asked me to be co-author of the road bill. I found out you can get stuff done through the legislative process.
So what I’ll bring to bear as the governor will be someone who will be entrepreneurial politically. To me if you’re a good entrepreneur, politics is easier than building a business.” Gov.
-elect Braun will begin to take a "critical look" at the state's 80 agencies. "It’s not going to be hard for me and my team to discern whether it needs major overhaul, minor tune-up or it’s working well," he said. He wants the General Assembly to take up his property tax reforms first.
“That has been by far the thing I’ve heard the most about over the last two years,” Braun said. He has proposed a 3% annual cap on property tax increases and a “reset” to 2021 tax levels. Lowering the cost of health care will also be a top priority.
"It’s one of the biggest sectors of our economy," he said. "It’s got political risk to it. I’ll size up all that, and I’ll put a team together.
” He called the state’s infant and maternal mortality rates “shameful.” He will seek to remove income requirements for private school vouchers. "I come from the real world of building a business," Braun told me last year.
"That was my life’s work. I was always interested that if that window opened, to jump through it.".
