On Saturday the Indiana GOP shocked everyone at its nominating convention in Indianapolis. Despite the will of the nominated gubernatorial candidate Mike Braun, and even an endorsement from the convicted former president, freshman state rep Julie McGuire was defeated in her bid for nomination as the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. Instead, Noblesville politician Micah Beckwith will be running on the ticket with Braun in November. So now he’s everyone’s problem.
Beckwith’s Big Day
Beckwith’s back-door bid to circumvent the established process of nominating a lieutenant governor candidate paid off for him in a vote of 891 to 828 among the convention delegates. He has spent the last year recruiting supporters to run as delegates, and while he had a lot of success in Hamilton County, it wasn’t a sweep. Conventional wisdom was that his influence didn’t stretch too far outside our county. Turns out, it did, albeit in a twisted way.
Braun, who in March was ordered to pay a fine of $138,000 for campaign finance violations, clearly did not want Beckwith as a running mate, but apparently doesn’t have enough leadership over his party to keep it from happening. Indianapolis Star writer James Briggs tweeted, “There’s no one more deserving than Mike Braun to spend the next four years attached at the hip to Micah Beckwith.” Braun, however, is rattling the “he’ll do what I say” saber. Sure, Mike.
The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Noblesville
We’ve been watching Beckwith since he appeared in the Noblesville July 4 parade in 2019 as an out-of-nowhere candidate for the US House in the 5th district. And I knew he was trouble when he walked in. His flyers featured his megawatt grin and the statement, “I have a vision to see Washington return to true Constitutional conservative values, to ensure that our children and grandchildren will continue to have a home where freedom and liberty reign.” The problem is that he envisions freedom and liberty for those who follow his particular sect of Christianity, and oppression for everyone else.
A heck of a lot has happened since then. He left his post as an unordained youth pastor at Carmel’s Northview Church “to focus on his campaign,” lost his bid for congress, got his own church in Noblesville, and used that pulpit and social media to build a radical following, with stances that amounted to “community efforts to control the pandemic infringe on my right to do what I please,” and “God told me the January 6 insurrection was sent by Him.”
The problem is that [Beckwith] envisions freedom and liberty for those who follow his particular sect of Christianity, and oppression for everyone else.
And then he really became my problem: he was appointed to the Hamilton East Public Library Board in September 2022 in a shady move by the Hamilton County Council as the cherry on top of a conservative coup.
The HEPL Fiasco
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know how badly that turned out for him, the library, and the people of Noblesville and Fishers that it serves. He supported the Republican campaign to brand Young Adult literature as pornography (despite not falling within the legal definition) and a costly effort to review every book in the library and sequester the books on topics of gender and sexuality, which wasted hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money. He brought in outside agitators, including Moms for Liberty members and his own parishioners and campaign manager, who bore the majority of the responsibility for the library board meetings becoming a circus.
Hamilton County’s city and county governments are controlled by the Republican party, and moderate community appeals to officials to stop the onerous book review process fell on deaf ears. So a group of more than 600 library supporters quickly formed Hamilton County Against Censorship to attend and speak at meetings, and shine the light on what was happening. Through their efforts, the story went viral on local media. And when a member contacted beloved Indianapolis author John Green, whose book was among those moved out of the YA section, he weighed in and it went viral all over the country.
Soon the conservative majority cracked under the pressure. Laura Alerding was replaced by the Noblesville School Board at the end of her term (thanks in part to community lobbying). Ray Maddalone resigned after being caught in an Open Door Law violation (thanks to an alert community member who spotted the illegal meeting in a coffee shop). Tiffanie Ditlevson left to focus on her run for Fishers City Council (and after being stopped from making a power grab). Faced with being in the minority on the board, Beckwith bailed. The people had the power to do something about this systemic censorship/political stunt when it seemed the odds were against them. (But don’t take your eye off this issue!)
Do Something About It!
Beckwith then poured his efforts into traveling the state to recruit delegates, in a clear manipulation of the will of the people. And he pulled it off. So now, Hoosiers, he’s your problem, too. Do you want him to be a heartbeat away from the governorship of our state? If not, here are a few things you can do now:
Volunteer for Jennifer McCormick’s campaign for governor, and vote for her in November.
Help break the GOP's supermajority by working with our outstanding candidates for the state house and senate. Learn about them here.
You can donate here to help the HamCo Dems stop Micah Beckwith again.