Demo, Bayh torch passes to Beau

Bayh statewide ’62, ’68, ’74, ’80, ’86, ’88, ’92, ’98, ’04, ’16, ’26

Indiana Democrats were lost in the wilderness, without a Democratic governor in 20 years, Sen. Bayh lost his Senate seat the last time he was on the ballot, Republicans had a lock on the Indiana U.S. Senate seats and all of the statewide elective offices, as well as a run in the majority in both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly, a Republican president had appointed the state’s top two federal prosecutors, and one of the few bright spots was that a Democratic legacy held the Indianapolis congressional seat – although Republicans had their eyes on chiseling away at its boundaries.

But the Democrats had high hopes. They had a 29-year-old attorney from a top East Coast law school – the son of a former U.S. senator – who had just wrapped up a federal judgeship and who wanted to run for secretary of state.

That was 1985. Fast forward 40 years and now in 2025, you’ll find Indiana Democrats lost in the wilderness, without a Democratic governor in 24 years, Sen. Bayh lost his Senate seat the last time he was on the ballot, Republicans had a lock on the Indiana U.S. Senate seats and all of the statewide elective offices, as well as a run in the supermajority in both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly, a Republican president had appointed the state’s top two federal prosecutors, and one of the few bright spots was that a Democratic legacy held the Indianapolis congressional seat – although Republicans had their eyes on chiseling away at its boundaries.

Both of those fresh-faced young Democrats were named Birch Evans Bayh. The 1985 model was Birch Evans Bayh III (D) – who ultimately defeated another legacy, the attorney son of former Gov. Otis R. Bowen (R) – and Evan’s son, Birch Evans Bayh IV, Beau, is this year’s great Democratic hope.

Your favorite newsletter has been covering state politics and government since Evan Bayh was secretary of state – and was at the State House on a daily basis – and even publishing on a session-daily basis – during the entire Bayh term as governor . . . before Beau Bayh was even born. We’ll bring that unique perspective to bear for you on the coverage of this fascinating campaign as Secretary of State Diego Morales (R), who has faced opprobrium from his own party over his conduct in office, seeks to fend off a pair of already-announced convention challengers.

Beau, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard and his law degree from Harvard Law School (his twin brother Nick also earned his undergrad degree from Harvard, but then chose to earn his MBA from the Harvard Business School, and was an Army officer while his brother was a Marine).

Beau, who recently moved from Bloomington to Indianapolis, announced his candidacy for secretary of state – the same office that launched his father’s statewide career in 1986 – via social media on Monday morning.

Beau’s grandfather, former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh (D), was a speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, a three-time elected U.S. senator who authored two successful constitutional amendments, and made a pair of presidential primary runs before losing to then-U.S. Rep. Dan Quayle (R) in 1980. Beau’s father, Evan Bayh (D) was elected secretary of state in 1986, governor in 1988 and 1992, and U.S. senator in 1998 and 2004 before stepping down in 2010 and being defeated in a 2016 comeback bid by then-U.S. Rep. Todd Young (R). Evan also made a brief presidential foray in 2008 and was one of the finalists for the Obama 2008 vice presidential pick.

And we shouldn’t leave his mother out of the political equation. The late Susan Bayh was a popular and outgoing first lady of Indiana, and her connection with Hoosier Democrats (and Hoosiers writ large), was only exceeded over the past several Democratic governors (as few as they been!) by Judy O’Bannon. Evan Bayh may have been more like his mother Marvella than his father Birch, and Bayh-watchers will keep a close eye on which parent Beau might take after in his political personality.

Based upon 2024 U.S. Census Bureau estimates about 40% of Hoosiers weren’t even alive the last time Evan Bayh won a race, and probably a majority of Hoosiers have not been adults since a Bayh last appeared on the ballot. Six years had passed since Birch Bayh lost his U.S. Senate when Evan won the secretary of state race; 10 years will have passed between Evan’s loss in his last Senate race to the 2026 SoS contest . . . and Evan can stake Beau with more than $2.6 million ($2,057,731 in his old U.S. Senate campaign committee as of June 30, and another $630,713 in his All America PAC as of the same day).

The Early Inklings of What to Expect from Beau Bayh

No one expected a Beau Bayh candidacy to open with scores of specifics about what he would so to overhaul auto dealer licensing, more appropriately enforce Blue Sky laws, or better regulate notary publics, for example, but his rollout was light on any detail, including on policy areas where Democrats believe they hold the moral higher ground – such as some aspects of election law.

The Beau Bayh video announcement – with the ruins at Holliday Park (insert your best metaphor here) as his backdrop – introduces himself to the electorate. “I’m a seventh-generation Hoosier, and I served our country as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps. I’m running to be our Secretary of State to fix a corrupt office and take on a broken political system that doesn’t serve us,” he explains, leaving out his east coast upbringing and double-Harvard pedigree.

How does he plan to address all of this? His talking points sure sound an awful lot like those employed by Hoosier Republicans:

Call out corruption, wasteful spending, and government abuse wherever we find it.
Oppose excessive taxes that are crushing working families.
Make sure elections are secure and fair.
Support the thousands of new businesses that create jobs and fuel our economy.

“Right now, the Secretary of State’s office shows exactly what’s gone wrong,” he continues. “Instead of serving Hoosiers, that office has been used to cut backroom deals, with our tax dollars funding perks for politicians and their insider friends. Hoosiers work hard for our money, and it’s being wasted. There’s no accountability. We deserve a Secretary of State who works for the people.”

Those are also points we’ve heard a good bit lately from more establishment Republicans, and from Knox County Clerk David Shelton (R) and Jamie Reitenour (R), both of whom have declared their respective candidacies to oppose Secretary Morales, and both of whom fell short of landing on the general election ballot two years ago, Shelton in convention against Morales (and a wider field), and Reitenour for governor in the primary.

Evan Bayh weighed in on Facebook with his support, using a medium that wasn’t even an option – much less the basic tool which it is today – during his gubernatorial tenure.

“I’m proud to announce that my son, Beau, filed his candidacy for Indiana Secretary of State today. A 7th generation Hoosier, Marine Corps infantry Captain, Harvard graduate, and attorney, Beau will bring new leadership to an office that desperately needs it,” the 69-year-old Bayh writes. “Even more, he’ll endeavor to begin healing our broken political system by emphasizing unity not division, progress not partisanship, and common sense not extreme ideology.”

That latter staple of reaching across the aisle and ideology by Evan Bayh – a hallmark of his career, despite what Republicans might have said at any given point when he was active – is a harbinger of what you can expect from Beau . . . even as he’ll likely be soft on many details (not that there’s a lot of heavy lifting in the SoS office).

You may also see Beau reach out to recent GOP secretaries of state who come from the GOP “establishment” – Ed Simcox (R), Sue Anne Gilroy (R), Connie Lawson (R), and Holli Sullivan (R) – to try to and convert them to his team early . . . though each is likely to keep their powder dry until after the convention in the event Shelton is nominated.

Indeed, there had been quiet talk among some who had been involved in the “Draft Mitch” movement 22 years ago that entreaties should be made to Beau Bayh to change parties and run as a “fusion”-type candidate on the Republican ticket. Some of those involved – and you would be surprised at some of the big names that seriously mused over the prospect – believed that Beau Bayh could attract both Democrats and MAGA-skeptical Republicans in the general election . . . though some realized that the convention hurdle would be impossible to vault, given how much sway the MAGA base holds over GOP primary elections where convention delegates are selected.

While Blythe Potter (D) of Johnson County has been running for the SoS nod on the Democratic side for a few months now, most Democratic regulars have viewed her as a place-filler of sorts, biding her time until top-tier alternative (Bayh) made plans final . . . and you should expect the military veteran to step aside and be persuaded to run instead for a legislative seat.

How Will Republicans Push Back on Bayh?

First, you should understand that while they will not dismiss him as some young, inexperienced dilettante (see the 2010 Buttigieg state treasurer race), they also do not perceive him to be the giant-killer that some Democrats believe he will be. The Bayh name, as we’ve noted, has been politically tarnished by that expensive and underwhelming 2016 U.S. Senate campaign, and changing demographics, as we pointed out above, means that much of the Hoosier electorate has grown up without the Bayh name being quite the magic that it held for their parents and grandparents. Frankly stated, the GOP is not scared – or if Republicans are worried, it’s over Secretary Morales being a drag on the ticket more than Beau Bayh overperforming.

Still, they are pulling some of the same tactics out of their 1985-86 playbook, with state party officials, Morales, and Shelton bashing Bayh right out of the gate as being too young, too inexperienced, not in touch with Hoosiers after having spent his life on the east coast, and already looking beyond the Office of the Secretary of State at higher office. Sound familiar?

One interesting sidenote: Hoosiers have not elected a secretary of state who has not attended a college or university in Indiana since at least the 1950s – with the exception of Connie Lawson (R), who did not attend college (Holli Sullivan (R) earned degrees from Missouri institutions of higher education, but she was never elected to the post). Every secretary of state, elected or appointed, since the mid-1960s has also earned a graduate degree (save Lawson), but of those 10 elected secretaries, Evan Bayh was the only one whose graduate degree was from out of state.

Republicans also hope to undermine Bayh before he can effectively assemble a political network, trying to raise doubts among the business community which is less partisan and more inclined to back moderate winners for the long run than extremist candidates who will be inimical to their interests and the long-term interests of the state. Beau has not been in the state long enough to work his own network, and while Evan built a strong base from friends during his undergraduate days in Bloomington and his work running his father’s 1980 reelection campaign, Beau does not have that same personal local support system, and will have to rely upon help from those who were part of his father’s successful efforts . . . and none of them are effectively under the age of 45, and most are at least a full decade – or two – older, and well removed from the days when Democrats were taken seriously in the state.

He also can’t afford to make any unforced errors – and those his father made in his state campaigns could probably be counted on just a finger or two. But it’s difficult for a first-time candidate to avoid tripping up, even one with the discipline of a Marine honed by the rigors of law school at Harvard . . . and that inexperience showed in some otherwise innocuous comments his first interview out of the gate – and they were not unseen by Republicans.

And the Beau intro video, according to Repubs, lacked the required disclaimer . . . and that could be because his Beau Bayh for Indiana campaign committee wasn’t registered with the Indiana Election Division until mid-morning Monday. By then, the campaign had already (in September!) accepted $10,000 contributions from former House speaker Mike Phillips (D) of Boonville and Jason Stephens of Chicago, and another $50,000 from Indianapolis developer Michael Browning, a financial linchpin in the late 1980s revival of the party, and a loyal Evan Bayh contributor. Unlike many statewide and congressional Republican candidates, Bayh has opened an Indiana campaign bank account (with Old National Bank).

Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun (D), the other under-30 Democratic next great hope, is his campaign chair. Some view the competition between the Army Ranger and Marine Corps captain as akin to F1 teammates, so even though they are both pulling in the same direction on Beau’s candidacy, it will not eliminate political chatter by those seeking to divide.

But Mayor Sakbun was first to defend his fellow party savior-in-waiting as Repubs pointed out shortcomings. A James Briggs piece in Monday’s Indianapolis Star, the first print piece in which Bayh acknowledged his candidacy, opens thusly: “Beau Bayh is sitting on a camp stool in an empty condo in Indianapolis’ Chatham Arch neighborhood. ‘Gosh,’ he tells me, ‘I spent tons of money on furniture, which sucks, but it’s coming in pieces, so hopefully by, like, mid-October, I’ll be fully moved in.’ ”

The TH chief exec jumped on X to agree that some prominent Republicans were offering “a fair take” on this quote. “But Beau has moved from multiple Indiana cities in the last several years and has been helping the party for a while now. This is a great example of how quickly the GOP can use media to brand our candidates and put Dems on the defense,” Mayor Sakbun observes . . . although we’re not quite sure to whom this message was intended.

Rep. Kyle Pierce (R) tweets (with the requisite emojis) that “It’s now come out that .@Beau_Bayh did the announcement interview at his “home” that he wasn’t even registered to vote in. What a campaign rollout.”

Knox County Clerk Shelton notes that “On October 2, 2025, Bayh filed a new Indiana voter registration after being moved to inactive twice, once in 2019 and again in 2021 with multiple postcards to his Marion and Monroe County addresses returned undeliverable. He has voted absentee in every election except one in 2016, and many of his ballots have been sent to addresses in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.” Shelton continues, “Indiana deserves a Secretary of State who actually lives here, runs elections hands-on, and solves problems. Voters need proven leadership, not a famous last name. Election administration isn’t a family affair – whether you’re a third-generation politician or hiring relatives in your own office, voters deserve professionalism over nepotism,” he adds, nailing two birds with one stone. “Beau Bayh can only run on his name and youthful inexperience,” he adds before getting in a gratuitous knock at his convention opponent, Morales.

Secretary Morales sends out a fundraising missive within a few hours of the Bayh announcement.

Beau Bayh is back in Indiana. I know it’s a long way from the East Coast for him. I’m willing to help him navigate all 92 counties, he may need it.

This won’t be the first time the Democrats and their allies in the media will spend millions to beat me. They did it in 2022 and it wasn’t close. The only difference this time is he will be handed his money on a silver platter.

Hoosiers want someone interested in the job they are running for and not someone who will turn around and run for a higher office the next day.

Indiana Republicans need to unite to ensure Democrats do not get a foothold in Indiana. I have over a million cash on hand, but it will take more. Please consider donating to defeat this East Coast liberal.

Later, Morales takes to social media with this statement that both reinforces and rounds out the GOP narrative:

Indiana Democrats are gearing up for their own fight – to see who can cater most to the far-left progressive wing of their party. Beau Bayh is a natural fit for that crowd after spending most of his life on the East Coast.

Now that he’s back in Indiana, he’ll need to explain why he’s running for Secretary of State – besides using it as a springboard to run for Governor in 2028.

He’ll have plenty of help from his friends in the media and deep-pocketed dad handing him cash on a silver platter. It’ll look just like 2022 – and we all remember how that turned out.

The difference this time is that we’re stronger, better funded, and ready to win again.

Indiana Republican Party Chair Lana Keesling offers these words about the Bayh candidacy:

Beau Bayh gave his first, official interview from a folding camp chair in an empty Indianapolis condo he recently rented. His verbatim quote right out of the gate was, ‘Gosh, I spent tons of money on furniture, which sucks, but it’s coming in pieces, so hopefully by, like, mid-October, I’ll be fully moved in.’

When you couple that with Beau Bayh voting by mail 14-times, it leaves a lot of questions on when, exactly, he moved here from Washington, D.C.

The reality is, Beau Bayh is a Washington insider who’s banking on his father’s money and donors to win a race he is in no way qualified for. His professional experience amounts to clerking for a far-left Obama-appointed judge, and being a far-left political nepo baby.

Beau is a trust fund kid who wants to pretend he’s the working-class pick, and Hoosiers can see right past it. Even his own father reportedly doubts his son can win. If the Indiana Democrats’ comeback plan is to reinstate the Bayh family’s failed political dynasty, they really are out of ideas.

So Where is this Headed?

Everyone understands that Diego Morales simply will not be outworked, and that he has a hold on the GOP base in a party that may be prone to renominate him if MAGA-inspired primary voters turn out in sufficient numbers to select Diego delegate slates – and there’s no reason to believe that won’t happen. And while the party will reluctantly support even a flawed candidate like Morales, whose ethics and travel habits and spending, hiring, and contracting practices have been questioned, there are still a lot of Republicans who will be voting in the general election who are not aligned with the MAGA agenda and might prefer an election office sans drama.

Beau Bayh hopes to peel off the non-MAGA crowd from any GOP candidate in the fall, and hold serve among Democrats . . . although the latter is no iron-clad guarantee. Like Indiana Republicans, Hoosier Democrats are still trying to decide what their party is. Not having elected a Democrat statewide since 2012, holding only two congressional seats (at least for now!), and long languishing in the legislative super minority, there are questions as to whether the party should go all in on a progressive agenda with progressive candidates, given that the party has not been able to improve its lot with more moderate positions as the old copperhead Democrats south of U.S. 50 have died off or started habitually voting Republican, and no legislative or congressional Democrats are left from rural districts.

Bayh faces a tall order, and even his father ran for an open seat at a similar time of Democratic despair 40 years ago. He’ll be fully funded (recall above that we told you he can look forward to the $2.6 million that his famously parsimonious father had hoarded), and has already been raising smaller donations via Act Blue. If he shows promise by next spring, look for national interests to start looking to move cash his way as the only short-term opportunity Indiana Democrats may have of reviving the party.

A wild card in this race could be redistricting. If Republicans are able to draw new maps and they look favorable to a 9-0 post-election GOP D.C. lineup, there could be voter pushback . . . and there could be a more united than usual Democratic Party fighting back at all levels. Whether the two Democratic congressional incumbents face radically different district lines and decide to make strong runs could also factor into the equation, diverting attention, energy, and cash from statewide races . . . but also, as we noted, perhaps injecting a new sense of purpose into Indiana Democrats. New congressional district lines might also prompt a Repub or two to primary, for example, U.S. Reps Jim Baird (R), or Victoria Spartz (R). That could also change the battlefield for GOP attention.

Look for him to push back on the out-of-state/out-of-touch narrative by stressing his military service and shared Hoosier values, but there has to be more than that and his family name – as well as the incumbent’s foibles – to convince Hoosiers to vote for him.