INDIANAPOLIS – A Marion County judge heard hours of argument Wednesday about whether an Indiana law disenfranchises Hoosiers from running on their preferred primary election ballot.
At issue is whether John Rust, of Seymour, can run as a Republican for U.S. Senate in May. But his attorney, Michelle Harter, said the unconstitutional law impacts up to 80% of Hoosiers who would not meet an initial statutory test to run.
“It precludes average Hoosiers who weren’t active in the past from running,” she said. Harter added that “it’s not clear what the harm to the party is in letting (Rust) run or letting the voters decide.”
The Indiana Republican Party has endorsed Third District Congressman Jim Banks for Senate in 2024.
Marion Superior Court Judge Patrick Dietrick first heard arguments to dismiss the case. If he allows the case to proceed, he will then have to address the merits of the case and the request for a preliminary injunction allowing Rust on the ballot.
The law in question requires a potential candidate to have voted in the party primary they want to represent in the last two primaries they participated in. Up until 2022, the rule was only one primary.
Rust voted Republican in the 2016 primary but Democrat in 2012. That then leaves his fate to a Republican party chair, who has said she won’t give him an alternate approval needed.
Jim Bopp, a conservative attorney representing the Indiana Secretary of State and Indiana Election Commission, said the case should be dismissed since it isn’t “ripe” and Rust hasn’t been harmed.
That’s because he hasn’t yet filed to run — that can’t happen until January 10 at the earliest. And he hasn’t been removed from the ballot — that can’t happen until mid-February at the earliest.
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