INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith upset decades of precedence in 2024 when Republican delegates chose him over Gov. Mike Braun’s preferred running mate for the general election.
But those instances could soon become obsolete after a Republican lawmaker filed a bill that would require the governor to choose the person to fill their right-hand position, not a political party.
Indiana’s lieutenant-governor candidate is currently chosen by the votes of party delegates at a political convention. The two then run together on a joint ticket during the general election.
It’s a unique election process for lieutenant governor that only Michigan, Iowa and South Dakota share.
House Bill 1022, authored by Rep. Danny Lopez, would instead allow a governor nominated in a primary election to pick their candidate for lieutenant governor and then run together on a joint ticket. That’s the process in 13 other states, including Illinois and Kentucky.
Gregory Shufeldt, a political scientist at the University of Indianapolis, views legislation that would allow a governor nominated in a primary election to pick their candidate for lieutenant governor as a rebuke by traditional state Republicans against the rising right-wing MAGA faction of the party. “In a state like Indiana where there’s a supermajority, the most interesting political conflict isn’t between Democrats and Republicans. It’s among Republicans,” he said.
The proposal is more than just a change to the election process, argued Gregory Shufeldt, a political scientist at the University of Indianapolis.
It’s also a rebuke by traditional state Republicans against the rising right-wing MAGA faction of the party, he said. That includes Beckwith, a political newcomer, die-hard Trump loyalist and a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist.
“In a state like Indiana where there’s a supermajority, the most interesting political conflict isn’t between Democrats and Republicans. It’s among Republicans,” Shufeldt said.
‘THE MICAH BECKWITH BILL’
The aim of the proposed bill isn’t lost on Beckwith. In an emailed statement, the lieutenant governor called Lopez’s legislation the “Micah Beckwith Bill” and argued it would set a “potentially dangerous precedent.”
He pointed to legislation in 2021 that removed the election of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and instead allowed the governor to appoint a person to the newly created position of Secretary of Education.
“Now this legislation seeks to change the process for selecting the Lieutenant Governor,” Beckwith wrote in an email to CNHI. “This precedent could make it easier to remove additional elected positions from the convention process. I adamantly urge the General Assembly to reject this bill.”
Beckwith’s objection to the legislation got personal in December when he called out Lopez in a post on X. Lopez voted against redistricting the state despite a months-long pressure campaign by President Donald Trump to redraw the state’s congressional map to further favor Republicans.
Beckwith wrote that Lopez’s bill was “Not surprising from the Republican who refuses to stand with President Trump and will try to take down those who do.” The same month, Beckwith claimed Lopez was “just not a Republican” during an interview with The Indiana Citizen.
“That’s what it is,” Beckwith said. “He’s an Indianapolis establishment guy. There’s nothing about him that is Republican.”
Lopez did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.
Other top Republicans on Thursday joined together to also oppose the bill, including Secretary of State Diego Morales, State Comptroller Elise Nieshalla, State Treasurer Daniel Elliot and Attorney General Todd Rokita.
In a joint statement, they argued removing the selection of lieutenant governor by party delegates would “disenfranchise the very individuals who build and sustain our political parties, diminishing participation and weakening the foundation of party organization in our state.”
“Once the role of delegates is reduced in one context, it becomes easier to justify similar changes for others and potentially opening the door to the removal of additional statewide elected offices from the honored convention process,” the statement reads.
‘ROWING IN THE SAME DIRECTION’
But Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said the bill isn’t about party politics. It’s about allowing a governor to select a running mate who is on the same page with their policy goals.
Pierce joined Republicans Mike Karickhoff and Ben Smaltz as co-authors of the legislation.
“The governor and lieutenant governor are supposed to be working together on whatever their policy goals are,” he said. “Clearly what we’ve seen with the current governor-lieutenant-governor dynamic is that’s not really the case.”
A case in point: Braun in an interview last month called Beckwith’s claim “fake news” that the Trump administration would withhold funds from the state for not approving his redistricting plan. Beckwith’s statement was made on a now-deleted X post.
Those public disagreements come as Beckwith and his office remain embroiled in scandals and controversy.
In October, a Marion County grand jury began investigating allegations that staffers in his office viewed and shared an AI-generated, topless video of a Republican lawmaker’s wife. The grand jury also investigated allegations of “ghost employment,” in which staff perform political or non-governmental work while on state time.
In February, Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray issued a formal written reprimand to Beckwith for using AI-enabled “smart glasses” capable of recording during private meetings and Senate sessions.
Add it up, and the lieutenant governor has done little to garner favor with Braun or advance his policy agenda, argued Shufeldt, the University of Indianapolis political scientist.
“To some extent, if Beckwith is making news, it probably is not good for Braun,” he said. “ … He’s been tied to scandals and had these kinds of unforced errors that perhaps a more disciplined politician would have avoided.”
Pierce said Beckwith’s selection as lieutenant governor makes the case for why it’s logical to allow a governor to choose his running mate. That ensures the two will be “rowing in the same direction,” he explained.
As it stands, he argued, the Indiana delegates who now choose the candidate are often from the most extreme ends of their political party, leading to fringe choices like Beckwith — a candidate that likely wouldn’t win support from the general electorate.
“The more strategic party thinkers probably would rather have candidates with a broader appeal, but they’re going to have to live with those candidates who get chosen through the convention,” Pierce said.
House Bill 1022 has been assigned to the House Committee on Elections and Apportionment, but has yet to be given a hearing. Pierce said he predicts the legislation won’t gain traction this year as Republicans try to present a unified front following the divisive infighting over redistricting.
Still, the idea behind the bill or similar language could find it’s way into other legislation this session, or in future sessions, noted the statewide elected opposed to the bill.
“We call on the General Assembly to reject House Bill 1022, or any similar language, and to preserve the integrity of Indiana’s established nomination system,” their statement reads.
A NATIONAL TREND
Indiana isn’t alone in having a governor and lieutenant governor who are sometimes at odds.
In 18 states, candidates for both positions run their own campaigns and are elected separately. That led to a rare situation in North Carolina, where from 2021 to 2025 a Democratic governor and Republican lieutenant governor were often opposed to each other’s’ political agenda.
It also created drama in Idaho, where voters separately elected Republicans for both positions. During the pandemic, the lieutenant governor issued an executive order to ban COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandates while the governor was out of state.
The governor called the move political grandstanding and immediately reversed the order when he returned to Idaho.
Those kinds of public conflict are leading more states to consider a system similar to how the president and vice president are elected, and similar to the process proposed in Indiana’s House Bill 1022, explained Bill Kramer, vice president of policy at MultiState, a government affairs firm.
“There is a movement overall to make the states more similar to each other, and then also more similar to what people are used to learning about in the federal system,” he said.
That’s the case in New York, where for decades the governor and lieutenant governor were chosen separately during primary elections. The two would then run on a joint ticket in the general election.
That’s changing this year after a former lieutenant governor was indicated for bribery. New York lawmakers approved a bill allowing the governor to chose their second command and run on a joint ticket.
Kramer said like in Indiana, it often takes a scandal or open conflict between a governor and lieutenant governor to push a state change its election process. With Beckwith causing so much controversy for Braun, it seems reasonable for lawmakers to consider a new system, he argued.
“I could see why they could be like, ‘Actually, we would like to square it up a little bit more so that the governor candidate has full say in who the lieutenant governor candidate is going to be,’” he said.