FRANKFORT – With about 30 days to go before the Nov. 3 general election, Clinton County Republicans heard from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Secretary of State nominee Max Engling at a party dinner Thursday October 1st at Arborwood in Frankfort. Both men had the same message: the race at the top of this year’s ballot depends on getting voters to the polls.
State Rep. Mark Genda served as host. He also recognized Sen. Brian Buchanan and Rep. Heath VanNatter, along with local elected officials in the room.
Rokita: “Wulda, coulda, shoulda”
Rokita told the crowd the dinner was supposed to be “a motivating dinner.” He warned against gathering in fellowship and then letting the next month “come and go.”
“We’re gonna be looking in the mirror on election day or even worse the day after, and we’re gonna be thinking, woulda, coulda, shoulda,” Rokita said. “There is too much at stake.”
He noted that the election after a presidential win is often hard for the president’s party. He also said many Republicans “think the job is done.”
Rokita went through recent work by his office. He cited a settlement with Meta worth several hundred million dollars and a Seventh Circuit ruling that upheld Indiana’s law banning gender-transition surgery for minors. He also mentioned a lawsuit his office filed against the Indiana High School Athletic Association over a board seat requirement he called an illegal racial quota. He also said his office now has a 287(g) agreement with federal immigration authorities.
Rokita was Indiana’s Secretary of State before serving in Congress. He reminded the audience that Clinton County Republicans backed him for that office when he was a 32-year-old candidate. He pointed to Indiana’s voter photo ID law, passed while he held the office, and compared his own path to Engling’s.
“There is no way when I asked you to support me for Secretary of State that I could have told you I was going to be Congressman or Attorney General,” Rokita said. “I had no ambition but to be Secretary of State… and that’s why Max is running.”
Rokita criticized Democratic nominee Beau Bayh, son of former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh. Rokita said Bayh is running ads on issues like taxes that have nothing to do with the office, and he tied Bayh to progressive national Democrats.
Genda introduces Engling
Genda said that when he looked at Engling’s biography, the candidate asked him to keep the introduction simple: “Tell the people that I’m a Christian and I’m married and I’ve got four kids and I live two counties away.”
“You’re the top of our ticket,” Genda told Engling, “and we need to be holding you up.”
Engling: Integrity, transparency, business filings
Engling thanked local legislators, Rokita, the Clinton County Republican Central Committee and Chairman Jordan Brewer. He also thanked county election officials, saying the Secretary of State’s ideas “don’t matter” if they can’t be carried out at the county level.
Engling said he has been married 15 years and has four children, and that he is running so the next generation chooses to stay in Indiana.
Engling is the second of eight children. He said his first jobs were baling hay and detasseling corn. He attended Ivy Tech and finished his degree at IUPUI, joking that both he and his opponent “have gone to the Ivy’s. I went to Ivy Tech and Bo went to Harvard.”
In Washington, he worked for the Committee on House Administration, which oversees House elections, and later for House leadership. He recalled the 1984 “Bloody Eighth” contest, in which the U.S. House seated the Democrat in the disputed southwestern Indiana congressional race. He said that history helped him push back on a 2021 challenge to Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ six-vote victory.
Engling said Bayh, at an Aug. 26 debate, called verifying voters’ citizenship “unduly burdensome.”
“If you’re unwilling to do the bare minimum of the job, which is ensuring that it’s an eligible voter voting, you’ve disqualified yourself from Secretary of State,” Engling said.
Engling listed three priorities:
- Election integrity: working with lawmakers to change the background color of driver’s licenses and IDs issued to people who are in the country legally but are not citizens, so poll workers can spot them.
- Transparency: an “Eyes on Elections” portal where Hoosiers could report suspected fraud, election problems or conflicts of interest directly to the Secretary of State’s office.
- Business services: cutting red tape for small businesses and going after fraud in business filings, especially trucking companies that dissolve and refile LLCs after crashes involving unqualified drivers. He cited one case of 14 identical LLCs at a single home address.
Top of the ticket
Engling noted that this year has no presidential, gubernatorial or U.S. Senate race on the ballot. That leaves the Secretary of State at the top of the ticket, alongside Auditor Elise Nieshalla and Treasurer Daniel Elliott.
The Secretary of State result in each county decides which party is listed first on that county’s ballot and which party names the inspector at every polling place.
“We’re running really hard to make sure we win so we can implement good policy,” Engling said. He directed voters to maxforindiana.com.
Genda closed by urging attendees to take yard signs home. “I don’t want to see any leftover signs when we leave here this evening,” he said. Genda said he was pleased Engling was talking about “Policy, not Politics”.
Party leaders: Get out the vote
After the program, Clinton County GOP Vice Chairman Wanda Mitchell called the evening a success.
“I think they went fantastic,” Mitchell said. “We had a fabulous showing from our state representatives and really excited about the election to come.”
Mitchell said County Chairman Jordan Brewer couldn’t attend because he was in the field harvesting.
She said the main takeaway was turnout. “Across the board, voter turnout is low and it’s extremely, extremely important,” she said. “So the message tonight is support your candidates, get out and get the vote out.”
With a little more than 30 days until the election and early voting starting next week, Mitchell urged Republicans to “start telling your friends andEngling, Rokita Urge Clinton County Republicans to Turn Out in Secretary of State Race.