Imagine if President Donald Trump, after being elected by primary voters to represent the GOP in the 2024 general election, wasn’t allowed to choose his running mate.
Instead, a group of delegates chose who appeared on the November ballot for vice president. Let’s take the hypothetical a step further and add that the vice president nominee selected by those delegates wasn’t Trump’s top choice to be his second-in-command.
Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
Neither does Indiana’s process for choosing lieutenant-governor nominees. Indiana joins just three other states where party delegates choose the governor’s running mate.
The Hoosier system didn’t draw much attention until 2024, when Gov. Mike Braun’s choice as his running mate was at odds with the will of GOP delegates. They instead chose Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith.
The forced marriage has, at least in public, been respectful. Braun did rightfully distance himself last year from Beckwith’s strange and inaccurate comments about the Three-Fifths Compromise.
But allowing delegates, instead of the person elected in the primary, to choose a running mate for a gubernatorial candidate diminishes the intentions of voters. It could also lead to a divisive situation if the governor and lieutenant governor don’t see eye-to-eye on important issues.
The position is important. The lieutenant governor serves as the president of the Indiana Senate and can vote to break a tie.
If the governor is unable to serve or dies, the lieutenant governor takes over the top spot.
The lieutenant governor also oversees the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, the Office of Community and Rural Affairs and the Indiana Destination Development Corp.
Though unlikely to pass this session, House Bill 1022, authored by state Rep. Danny Lopez (R-Carmel), would shift the power for selecting a lieutenant governor to the gubernatorial candidate.
Such legislation stirs political reaction.
Delegates are often power brokers within political parties, and upsetting them by removing their authority to select a lieutenant governor could cause backlash.
Beckwith has also been an outspoken critic of members of his own party, so it’s safe to assume some Republicans don’t want to be caught in his social media crosshairs by daring to suggest that a candidate, not a convention, should choose the governor’s running mate.
But Indiana’s system takes power from the people, as well as the governor. It’s time for a change.
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