By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com
August 3, 2026
Sometimes, a focus on details obscures a full appreciation of the larger picture.
Such is the case with the decision by Indiana Sen. Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, not to stand for re-election as president pro tempore of the Indiana Senate.
The MAGA mental giants in Indiana are crowing about this as if it were a major victory for them. Egged on by their leader, President Donald Trump—a man who, in three national elections, never has won 50% of the popular vote—they see Bray’s departure as a sign that their movement is on the rise.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Bray’s gracious and graceful withdrawal from the field is one more piece of evidence that the Indiana Republican Party continues to split in half. MAGA—again, following Trump’s lead—is on its way to making the Indiana GOP weak again and offering Hoosier Democrats a desperately needed lifeline.
Long before Bray decided to make his exit, the signals were clear that Hoosier Republicans were in the midst of an epic family feud.
Greg Ballard—the last Republican to serve as mayor of Indianapolis—launched both a campaign for Indiana Secretary of State and, with the quiet backing of many longtime GOP stalwarts and funders, a new political party, the Lincoln Party.
In a not particularly subtle swipe at the MAGA types who revel in acts of bigotry and suppression, this new party draws its name from the Great Emancipator whose name and legacy Republicans celebrate with annual dinners.
The message was not hard to read. If the Indiana Republican Party no longer honors its historic values, these longtime Hoosier GOP leaders will create a new party that does honor them.
Ballard’s arrival already has had an impact.
Until he entered the secretary of state race, the battle was going to be between incumbent Republican Diego Morales and Democrat Beau Bayh.
Morales has the morals of a weasel and an ethical compass that always is locked on the nearest sewer, but, absent Ballard’s re-emergence, he probably would have eked out a narrow victory. The inertia of party-line voting in Indiana was so great that even a Democratic candidate with the Bayh name and pedigree likely wouldn’t have been able to overcome it.
Ballard changed that dynamic—and he scared the MAGA folks so much that, at the Indiana Republican Convention, they threw Morales overboard and selected a candidate who will have to spend several million dollars just to get Hoosiers to recognize his name.
And now there’s a distinct possibility that the Republican candidate could finish third in the secretary of state race, the marquee matchup in this year’s election.
Bray, like Ballard, is not a MAGA Republican. The departing Indiana Senate leader is a thoroughgoing conservative, which means he believes in the value of institutions, principles and the rule of law.
Bray ran afoul of Trump and his MAGA minions last year when the Indiana Senate rejected the president’s ill-conceived and perhaps illegal redistricting attempt.
Trump and his Hoosier MAGA foot soldiers such as Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith focused their ire on Bray, blaming him for the failure of their ill-fated power grab.
The truth—and truth never has mattered much to Trump and MAGA—was more complicated than that.
Most of the Republican members of the Indiana Senate, including some who ended up voting for the president’s plan, thought the redistricting push was a bad idea. They knew their constituents didn’t want it and they saw no benefit in it for anyone but Trump.
Bray took the heat and the hit for his caucus.
That’s what leaders do.
But his departure from leadership tells any Republican who dares to follow his or her own conscience that the Indiana GOP no longer has a place for them.
At the same time, Ballard and the Lincoln Party are all but sending them engraved invitations that read, “Come on in. We’d love to have you with us.”
Trump boasted about Bray’s exit on social media. The president made it sound as if he had recorded an epic triumph.
But his bragging made him look like a dad doing a 10-minute celebratory dance after scoring a touchdown at a father-son peewee football game.
Mr. President, beating guys half your size isn’t a big deal.
And seizing defeat from the jaws of victory is never a reason to do a dance in the end zone.
John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The views expressed are those of the author only and should not be attributed to Franklin College. Also, the views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.
