Two candidates are already getting the most attention in the 2024 Indiana Republican Senate primary. One already has announced he’s running. Until recently, he led the largest ideological caucus in Congress and recently received the endorsement of a major conservative political organization and is seeking one from the most recent Republican president, who’s also the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
The other candidate hasn’t officially announced he’s running, yet he’s been subjected to caustic mudslinging and threats from the political powers that be, aimed at dissuading him from entering the contest.
So who’s the establishment candidate in this race? If you guessed the former, you’d be wrong, apparently. According to the mainstream press, Mitch Daniels, the unassuming, policy-oriented, popular former governor who isn’t actually a declared candidate yet but has nonetheless been the subject of reproach by the Club For Growth, is the establishment’s choice. In contrast, Jim Banks, the erstwhile chairman of the Republican Study Committee who currently represents Indiana in the House of Representatives and has the backing of Turning Point Action and is seeking the support of Donald Trump, is somehow being portrayed as the renegade outsider.
If you’re bewildered by this assessment, you’re not alone. It’s become increasingly clear to anyone paying attention that the MAGA crowd is in command of the Right in the post-2016 political universe. In this regard, Banks is hardly a change agent. He has far more in common with the kind of candidate that voters overwhelmingly rejected in 2022. Particularly inasmuch as he has obsequiously aligned himself with Donald Trump. Supporting Trump in 2016, and in 2020, are far different — and far more defensible — than seeking out his endorsement now. Indeed, in 2023, a Trump endorsement is even more tainted than it was at this time last year. Since then, Trump has not only suffered serious midterm defeats, but has also called for the “termination” of the Constitution, dined with antisemites Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, blamed pro-lifers for his poor electoral fortunes, criticized Evangelical Christians for “disloyalty,” and relentlessly sought the political destruction of Ron DeSantis, the leading conservative governor in the country. Trump might even run as a third-party candidate in 2024 if he doesn’t get the nomination, which would ensure that a Democrat remains in the Oval Office.
Daniels, on the other hand, has a proven conservative record. As president of Purdue University, he stood firm on resisting Covid insanity, defended freedom of speech, and withstood the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. That hardly sounds like the actions of a proponent of a “social issues’ truce.” And in his previous life as governor of the Hoosier State, he shrank the size of government, lowered taxes, balanced the budget, and passed right-to-work legislation.
So why has Daniels has garnered so much flack from some on the right? Because his temperament dares to differ from the performative bloviation evidenced by so many results-free Republicans these days. Daniels is the opposite of them, in that he may not seek the spotlight, but he has actually demonstrated successful conservative governance. It’s the latter model that gets achievements for the Right, even if it doesn’t always get cable-news hits. So if Daniels does decide to throw his hat into the ring and the usual suspects come out in force against him, remember that they are the ones in the driver’s seat, veering off the road. People like Daniels are trying to get the Republican Party back on the conservative track.