Indiana senator warns enthusiasm for Harris could hurt downballot Republicans

Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) expressed some worry that enthusiasm surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign will trickle down and hurt Republicans in Indiana .

While Indiana is not expected to be a winnable state for Democrats this election, Braun, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, still expressed some worry that Harris could affect downballot races there.

"I think that's had an impact," he told reporters last week, "but I'm going to plow through that because this is a lot about kitchen table issues once you're starting to run for governor."

Braun noted that Democrats are "re-energized" because it's no longer inevitable that they will lose the presidential race, according to Axios .

During the 2008 presidential election, then-Sen. Barack Obama surprisingly won Indiana by 1.03 percentage points. His campaign was notable for its record-high levels of enthusiasm, something Harris's campaign appears to be replicating. Obama performed well in Indiana’s Chicago suburbs, which are largely Democratic and heavily populated as compared to the rest of the state.

Braun's worries could affect him in his own race. He will face Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater.

"Voters focus so much on the top of the ticket," Braun said. "They vote for the rest because they're there, but they went to vote for president."

In the 2016 presidential election in Indiana, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson received 133,993 votes, which wasn’t enough to pull the win away from Donald Trump, but a similar result in 2024 could prove troubling for downballot races. In 2008, then-Sen. John McCain lost Indiana by fewer votes than the number of people who voted for the Libertarian candidate, indicating that he might have won the state without a third-party candidate in the mix.

During the 2020 gubernatorial race, Gov. Eric Holcomb (R-IN) won reelection comfortably but Rainwater, who also ran in 2020, received around 345,000 votes. Rainwater campaigned on looser COVID-19 restrictions than that of Holcomb’s administration, which could have been the reason for some of his stronger-than-expected turnout.

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Indiana Democrats have also launched " Hoosiers for Harris, " a volunteer and donation page to capitalize on the energy surrounding the Harris campaign.

"We have seen a huge surge of enthusiasm around Kamala Harris's bid for the presidency over the last few weeks," Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Mike Schmuhl said. "Hoosiers for Harris will capture this energy so more and more voters realize the stakes in this election and make a plan to vote on or before Nov. 5."