Governor-elect Mike Braun talks about his transition team and more on Nov. 6, 2024 in Indianapolis. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Just over 12 hours after claiming victory on Election Night, Governor-elect Mike Braun announced the team of Hoosiers that will guide the transition of power, relying on several well-known politicos to oversee the changeover.
Such a team, as well as the future appointments for state agency heads, “will be people that understand that it’s going to be my vision of being an entrepreneurial governor. That’s going to be conservative on the financial side but very entrepreneurial on the problem-fixing side,” Braun told reporters in Indianapolis on Wednesday.
Braun didn’t rule out keeping some department heads from fellow Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration, though he has previously singled out both the Family and Social Services Administration and the Department of Child Services as agencies in need of improvement.
Victor Smith, who previously worked as commerce secretary under former Gov. Mike Pence, will chair Braun’s transition team. Josh Kelley, Braun’s chief of staff in the U.S. Senate, will be transition director.
Former GOP Chair Anne Hathaway will lead the inaugural committee while Emily Daniels Spaulding will be the inaugural director.
Three of the members tapped for Braun’s transition team are alums of former Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration: Betsy Wiley, a pro-school choice advocate who was Daniels’ deputy chief of staff; Ryan Kitchell, who previously oversaw the Office of Management and Budget; and Brad Rateike, who was Daniels’ deputy press secretary.
A handful are members of the Braun campaign’s foundation arm, including Wiley, conservative attorney Jim Bopp and lobbyist James Purucker.
Remaining members include GOP Chair Randy Head, lobbyist and former Indiana Rep. Matt Bell and former Indiana Rep. Dan Dumezich.
“It’s been a heck of a journey”
On the campaign trail, Braun and his opponents fought bitterly over rivaling property tax relief plans, with the Republican favoring a proposal that some said would trigger local cuts to public services like law enforcement.
“Hopefully that can be Senate Bill 1, House Bill 1,” Braun said about a property tax relief plan. “That has been, by far, the thing I’ve heard most about over the last two years.”
Other topics could take several years to fully address, including health care. Braun said health care costs and reform measures weren’t tackled effectively because “it’s got a political risk to it,” but was one of the areas in which Indiana needed to improve the most.
“It’s the one we have the worst results (in) compared to most other states, measuring it down as finitely as infant and maternal mortality,” Braun said.
Braun health care plan builds upon legislative action that previously failed
Indiana’s high maternal and infant mortality rates are among the worst in the nation and the developed world. The state also ranks poorly across several public health measures and has some of the nation’s highest health care costs.
“Those percentages are shameful,” Braun said.
Braun contrasted Indiana, which is constitutionally required to have a balanced budget and maintains a low debt ratio, to Washington D.C., where he served for the last six years as one of the Hoosier State’s U.S. senators. While Republicans appear poised to regain control of the U.S. Senate, several U.S. House races are still too close to call.
“I think there’s more potential back here at home,” Braun said. “I think the biggest issue D.C. is going to deal with, regardless of the outcome of the election, is the fact that they can’t run the place functionally and financially responsibly.”
In particular, Braun pointed to the Indiana House and Senate, which are both controlled by Republican supermajorities. Having the General Assembly on the same page would allow him to enact more priorities, Braun said.
Asked whether winning by such a large margin — or 54.6% of the vote as of 1 p.m. Wednesday — would give him sway over the legislative bodies, Braun said, “It does.”
“I think it’s an honor and it’s a big … platter of opportunity. And I’ll accept it humbly and try to engage everyone in my own party along with good ideas across the aisle,” Braun said.
However, initial budget forecasts appear to be signaling smaller revenues than previous cycles, when Indiana was buoyed by an influx of federal dollars. At the same time, lawmakers will be considering several expensive priorities — including education, which takes up roughly half of the budget, as well as Medicaid and road funding.
“I’ve always done more with the same or less. That’s being effective and creative,” Braun said about the transition. “… Don’t assume that you got to have more to get more done. That doesn’t mean in some areas you’re not going to need to invest more to accomplish it, but that is something that I would say I’ve been most trained (for).”
Braun has repeatedly been critical of the funding formula for schools, claiming that a Hoosier classroom costs, on average, $245,000 annually and that just $60,000 typically goes to teachers. Too much is spent, he said, on overhead administrative costs and buildings.
That has bolstered his support for school choice, though he said rural areas would need to grow economically in order to support such a model. Such growth should prioritize “homegrown entrepreneurs” over large outside businesses, he said, a criticism of the direction of Indiana’s state economic policy under Holcomb.
Micah Beckwith as second-in-command
Micah Beckwith’s addition to the team as the lieutenant governor nominee was “kind of unexpected,” Braun acknowledged. Party delegates selected Beckwith, a self-described Christian nationalist, over Braun’s choice, Indianapolis Rep. Julie McGuire.
“It’s been a benefit, in a way, because it’s kind of brought the party together. The part of the party he represents is where all the passion is,” Braun said. “… It’s my job to make sure that the full spectrum of what being a Republican is about in the state (of Indiana) is then going to be focused on the kitchen table issues I’ve been talking about.”
Such “kitchen table issues” for his transition team wouldn’t delve into the social topics Beckwith has touted, such as striking Indiana’s abortion ban exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
“Everyone’s going to have an opinion on the issues that divide us, and the emphasis is that they divide us. You’re probably not going to get much beyond that,” Braun said.
He noted that preliminary election results appeared to favor incumbents, many of whom wrote Indiana’s current near-total abortion ban — indicating support from their constituents.
“He’s going to have his own duties … and his input will be there for me to consider,” Braun said about Beckwith. “I’m going to clearly be setting the agenda (and) listening to all the folks that helped me get here in the first place.”
In contrast, he criticized the campaign of his Democratic opponent Jennifer McCormick for being singularly focused on abortion access — “a critical error.”
“I think it was probably disingenuous and foolish to think that that was going to carry the day in a state that had just looked at it a couple years ago,” Braun said.
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