Indiana’s race for secretary of state is shaping up to be a referendum on the character of the Republican nominee, opening one of the few shots Democrats fired at the entire state in the past decade.
Political experts say the GOP noticed this a long time ago, in fact, before party delegates flatly rejected the selection of Gov. Eric Holcomb to fill the job, incumbent Holli Sullivan. Long before Republican candidate Diego Morales entered the race, in fact, symptoms of caution began. to appear.
It was in 2018 and Morales, who was seeking to run in the 4th Congressional District, was criticized for exaggerating parts of his resume and being fired from the secretary of state’s workplace, the very workplace he now seeks to manage. He lost those Republican primaries.
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Since he defeated Sullivan to become the Republican nominee in June after a messy conference bout where a small number of delegates have nomination power, the list of controversies related to Morales has only grown.
Experts say the long list could damage his crusade against the state’s leading election official and gain advantages over his Democratic opponent Destiny Scott Wells in what has been an easy race for Republicans to win for decades. Voters.
Morales has struggled to distract media attention from the controversies surrounding him and focus on what he must accomplish as secretary of state. This has put some hardcore Republicans who might disagree with typical Democratic election politics at an impasse over who to vote for.
But as Morales sees it, his crusade has been controversial.
“There’s no controversy,” she told IndyStar, a day before the sexual assault allegations came to light. “Democrats are the ones who make this controversial. “
But while state party leaders still publicly supported Morales and issued an order to protect him, other Republicans formed an organization of Republicans for Destiny.
A poll of 600 most likely voters conducted through Illinois-based Indy Politics and ARW Strategies between Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 found Wells had 36 percent of the most likely electorate polled, compared with 32 percent for Morales and 7 percent for Maurer. . The remaining 25% of the electorate surveyed is undecided, the ballot showed with a margin of error of 4%. The poll shows that Morales’ great challenge has been solidifying from his Republican base.
“I can win,” Wells told IndyStar, “and since the appointment of Diego Morales, I’m going to win. “
But that’s Indiana, a state where no Democrat has won a statewide elected term since 2012 and Republicans have a large majority in either legislative chamber. Meanwhile, national Democrats have largely counted the red state and no Democrats have won the secretary job. of the state since Joe Hogsett, who is now mayor of Indianapolis, won in 1990, at that time a very different Indiana.
While some of Hoosier’s best-known politicians were given the start in office, the average voter often doesn’t know who the secretary of state nominees are because it’s not a high-profile position, said Andy Downs, a professor. emeritus of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Policy at Purdue University in Fort Wayne. Instead, they vote regularly through the party, which would favor Morales.
“However, he has a bit of controversy around him,” Downs said, “and if that’s understood, then there will be other people who will stay with him because of his association with the party or because of what they hear from Destiny Wells. , or because they agree with some of the most debatable statements, there may be other people who stand out and vote for Destiny because it’s a winnable race.
He added a caveat: He has to raise an abundant amount of money, the kind that can make a candidate appear on television, to get her message across. It is still transparent what the monetary outlook looks like, as reports of the crusade are expected in the mid-middle. -October.
Morales announced himself at the Republican conference proceedings in June as someone who embodied the American dream.
He immigrated from Guatemala in high school, a rare Latino Republican candidate at the state level in Indiana. He graduated from Southeast Indiana University in New Albany before earning a master’s degree in business administration from Purdue University. He joined the National Guard, got married, and got jobs in state government. and until last month he co-owned Ventures USA, a contracting and asset control facilities company, according to secretary of state documents.
He had what appeared to be an upward war for the nomination. While Morales made it clear that he is running for secretary of state years before the election, Holcomb appointed Sullivan in 2021 to upgrade retiree Connie Lawson. Sullivan served until the end of the year.
Morales, however, easily won the Republican nomination in part because of the disgust of right-wing delegates, who are still angry with the state’s coronavirus restrictions, for being connected to Holcomb.
Morales has also built rank-and-record relationships within the party over the years, appearing at countless Lincoln Day dinners in as many as 92 Indiana counties.
“In fact, I’m living the American dream and I hope I can open the door to other minorities,” Morales told IndyStar. “It was never about me, and I will continue to give back to Indiana and America who gave me everything. “
His attempt to paint himself as an example of the American dream, however, has some holes.
When Morales worked for then-Secretary of State Todd Rokita in 2009, he was fired for “planning and managing incomplete occasions,” “inefficient execution of assigned deliverables,” and “lack of attention to strategy and drawing up plans,” according to the workers’ registry. documents received in an IndyStar recording request program. The workplace also cited their “lack of professionalism. “
In 2011, under the leadership of then-Secretary of State Charlie White, Morales was presented with a plan to work within a month of starting work, due to the “poor execution of the required daily tasks” and the “realization of plans and control of incomplete events. “He refused to point out the form and resigned a day later to conduct what he called ‘new experiments. ‘
Morales had told IndyStar in the past that the documents were a defamatory crusade tactic.
“Anyone can write to you at any time, because of their envy, their egocentric rivalry in the office, whatever you want to call it. That’s precisely what happened,” Morales told IndyStar in an interview in May, referring to the nonpublic documents that surfaced. He was fired. ” I have nothing on that. “
Similarly, in recent weeks, questions have been raised about his resolve to focus his crusade on his veteran status, despite his three-month, 18-day stint in the National Guard as part of his education period. in his military record is that Wells is an Afghan Army veteran and Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel and Maurer is enlisted in the Indiana Air National Guard.
In addition, Morales has not been transparent about why he parted ways with the National Guard before finishing his full 8-year term, opting to end his remaining time in the individual reserve in a position to fulfill that commitment, he said. Said. This means that you can be called to serve if necessary.
Morales, whose Twitter avatar is a photo of him in uniform, told IndyStar that there was nothing strange about his resolve to separate from the National Guard before the end of his term, and federal documents provided by the Indiana Republican Party imply he was honorably released. However, Morales declined to say why he entered willing to the so-called individual reservation, instead of fulfilling his full obligation.
“I fulfilled all my time, I didn’t leave early. These are just army discussions,” Morales said, referring to the two years he spent on the individual reserve loan. “I’m very proud of my service in the military. And as I told you you can call the Department of Defense, the Indiana National Guard or the U. S. Army. “U. S. “
Despite the negative attention, Morales continues to enjoy the attention of some key Republicans. Rokita, for example, joined him at a fundraiser last month and former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to attend a fundraiser for him this week. Prior to the convention, Rokita provided Morales with a note saying Morales had left his workplace in clever terms.
Similarly, Rokita and Ed Simcox, former Republican secretaries of state, wrote an op-ed saying the Hoosiers vote for Morales.
“This year, voting for Diego Morales as Indiana’s Secretary of State is voting to make our elections elegant and to make our economy one of the most business-friendly in the country,” they wrote.
Questions about his past would likely have discouraged some Republicans, but Mike Murphy, a former Republican lawmaker, still believes Morales will win in part because of Indiana’s natural Republican makeup, a state Trump won by 16 percentage points in 2020.
“People’s attention span is so narrow in those days,” Murphy said. “As a state, we are so tribalized that other people tend not to do what the other side thinks and organize all hounds, saying that all hounds are Democrats. “
Murphy, a direct Republican voter who cares about Morales, said he didn’t know who he would vote for.
Wells’ campaign, on the other hand, attracted less negative attention and was absent of notable mistakes.
Wells, 38, grew up on a family farm in Morgan County, southwest Indianapolis, and enlisted in the National Guard after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. He graduated from Indiana University and earned his law degree from the University of Texas. She worked as a state suggestion under Attorney General Curtis Hill for a year, before resigning over a pay dispute over what she at the time called systematic discrimination against veterans. He felt that his time in military service had counted towards his point of experience. However, the state disagreed.
Later, she went to the City of Indianapolis as Associate General Councilor.
Her biggest mess: She’s a Democrat running in a Republican state. While Wells will most likely take advantage of Morales’ responsibilities, he still has an uphill battle. There are some differences between two statewide Democratic victories in 2012 and this race.
In 2012, moderate Democrat Joe Donnelly likely won his Senate race because he faced Richard Murdock, who defeated Richard Lugar in the primaries, and then went viral for saying that pregnancy caused by rape was “something God intended to happen” in a televised debate. Many national media outlets, from Politico to the Washington Post, took notice of his comment and he was widely criticized for being too extreme.
So far, Morales has earned this kind of negative attention from the national media.
That same year, Democrat Glenda Ritz pulled off a miracle against Republican Tony Bennett to become superintendent of public education. It was another unique situation: Bennett had angered the state’s teachers while advocating for school reforms, leading them to particularly attack his opponent in a strong popular campaign.
Democrats hope that some other factor, abortion rights, will lead to that for Wells.
Kip Tew, a Democrat who has worked on several campaigns, adding Obama’s, by comparison, the Ritz has won from teachers what he hopes Wells will get from women angered by the state’s recently passed near-total abortion ban.
“To me, that’s what’s similar this time with this race: Women and other people who have the right to abortion are very, very motivated,” Tew said. “What I hope is that they will vote, and they will vote. “to send a message to Republicans that they’re too extreme, and that’s our most productive opportunity. “
Wells, the daughter of Republican farmers, believes she will win the election partly because she stands up to Morales and partly out of frustration over the state’s new abortion law.
“I’d like to say I just have faith, but we end up talking all the time about my opponent’s character,” Wells said. “I am opposed to an incredibly weak opponent. “
Despite Morales’ most productive attempts to dig into his non-public history, he did not delve into many political problems expressed in the months following his victory at the Republican convention.
So far, he has refused to debate, and when asked why, he said he spoke face-to-face with the Hoosiers and pointed the finger at Democrats of other races who don’t participate in the debates.
He said his primary goal was to boost voter confidence and launch unspecified educational campaigns to inspire each and every Indiana resident to be part of the election process. He has also discussed in the past his goal of requiring Indiana residents to attach a photo of their ID to apply for a vote-by-mail, to better meet the needs of in-person voting.
It is more evasive on other political points.
When he won the conference in June, Morales shared that he sought to advocate for relief in the number of early voting days to 14, which would force the General Assembly to replace the law. But when IndyStar spoke to him last week, he said “the way it’s working right now will remain the same,” declining to say why it replaced his mind.
His position on the validity of the 2020 election also turned out to have changed. Morales wrote in an op-ed before the Republican conference that Americans have “valid reasons to doubt the official vote count in key states” and called the election “tainted. “” and a “scam”.
“The 2020 election was and the outcome is questionable,” he wrote at the time.
When asked if he stood by last week’s comments, Morales continually told IndyStar, “President Biden is in the White House and he’s the valid president,” and again, he didn’t say why he replaced his mind.
He also has the backing of the U. S. First Secretary of State’s Coalition, an organization that needs to review the conduct of elections, but declined to say whether it meets the organization’s goals of getting rid of mail-in ballots.
Wells, on the other hand, says he needs to expand voter access, allowing all students to vote with their school ID cards. At present, this right is reserved for those attending public schools. It also needs to push for nonpartisan redistribution and verify communication with local election officials.
But she’s also under pressure that she must be an ombudsman, not a party, which turns out to be a prudent thing for an Indiana Democrat who has ambitions to win.
“As secretary of state, we have to be very vigilant and guilty in the way we communicate,” Wells said. “It is our legal ethical responsibility to perpetuate conspiracy theories. “
Again, it is difficult to say to what extent all this penetrates the minds of the electorate. The U. S. Senate Race The U. S. ranks tops, and the secretary of state has been a contest in Indiana where the electorate doesn’t pay much attention beyond party affiliation.
“Controversies, and applicants, only matter if other people know about them,” said Laura Merrifield Wilson, a political science professor at the University of Indianapolis. A concept strong enough to be impressionable, they have no tangible effects on the race. “
Election Day is November 8. The date to register to vote is October 11.
IndyStar reporter Alexandria Burris contributed to this story.
Call IndyStar reporter Kaitlin Lange at 317-432-9270 or she at kaitlin. lange@indystar. com. Follow her on Twitter: @kaitlin_lange.