Braun in Desperate Looks to TPUSA to Save Him

So yesterday, the big news, the governor of the state of Indiana, Mike Braun, has this big press conference. He invites a bunch of younger people. I think there were high school kids there. There were college kids there. Confirming what Diego Morales, as Indiana Secretary of State, always wanted to grab a headline, had posted a couple days earlier that the state of Indiana is partnering with Turning Point USA. Although it's not exactly totally clear what they're doing. It's it's espoused to be some sort of voter registration effort. But then it turned into some sort of free speech thing. I'm going to read you some of Braun's quotes later, because as with most things with Braun, they're very bizarre. And I'm going to be curious to get what get your guys opinion on this, because look, we talked about this a couple of days ago. Braun and Diego are doing this because Braun and Diego know they are about as popular as a root canal right now. Multiple polls show with both of these guys, them being seriously underwater. Their policies are unpopular. They are unpopular. In the case of Diego, despite running a 24/7 campaign machine out of his office, people most people still don't even know who he is. And those who do. It's underwater. These guys know, and it is because the policies and the behaviors of these two people have led the people of Indiana to not like, not like them. In the case of Braun, it was his signature issue. He betrayed the people of Indiana on his signature issue, which was property tax reform. He bailed on the people of Indiana. He didn't fight. He caved. And and ever since then, I mean, it's been basically a year now. The people of Indiana turned against him. You cannot have a high approval rating no matter what else you do. When the signature thing, the thing you say you're going to deliver on, which is why you were elected when you don't follow through. It's not that it failed because the General Assembly ultimately can do on any issue what they want to do. The General Assembly has absolute control because the the veto over the threshold to override a veto is 50% plus one governor has very little power in terms of the actual legislative process. Of course, we found out with Holcomb, the governor has immense power once the General Assembly convenes, you know, adjourns. I'm sorry for the year, but the people were upset. The people were disappointed. The people were angry because Braun didn't fight. Braun just signed the bill. A bad bill, a bill that everybody hates, a bill that is having immense ramifications across our state already. And none of them are good. But Braun and Diego both see, and in the case of Diego, a panic mode because he is up for reelection, may not even get out of his own convention. They see they're in big trouble, especially amongst their own party. Look, there are some people, in the case of Diego Morales, especially outside of sort of the Central Indiana area who don't get the news about the daily BS he engages in, who still like him. But the word is out, especially, especially in central Indiana. What a complete piece of garbage the Indiana Secretary of State is, and he knows this. It's why the poll that came out on on the Secretary of state's race between Beau Bayh, the Democrat presumed Democrat nominee Diego and Greg Ballard showed Greg Ballard heavily pulling from Diego Morales. Republicans, especially mainstream Republicans, are looking for an exit ramp on this guy. If Diego Morales is the nominee for secretary of state, there are going to be wholesale Republicans looking for an exit ramp. And so these guys know they're in big trouble. They know what the people of Indiana think about them, and they're looking for someone for anyone to try to save them. Now, in the case of Braun, because he had the press conference yesterday, he had the big announcement with Turning Point USA, Braun is always looking. Or I should better say I don't think Braun knows much about what's going on, but the Braun people are always looking for the next hit, the next person, the next thing that they perceive can help him and they will pay lip service to. Now it'll be interesting to see if there's follow through with Turning Point USA, because one thing about Braun, he is great at lip service. He's not real good at the follow through. I know he's great at telling people who they think or he thinks can help him. Whatever it is he thinks they want to hear, or give them whatever little nuggets or morsels he thinks they need to come on to his side to come on to his team. I know I've seen it firsthand. I've experienced it. I experienced it in the summer of 2024. Look, the brawn, the Braun campaign did not want to deal with me. That was abundantly clear. But you guys remember this. Remember when they did the polling? Remember when my name started showing up in political polls like it was the traditional who would you vote for type of poll? You know, the race today between Mike Braun and Jennifer McCormick and Donald Rainwater, all the sort of traditional questions. And then randomly and you guys were sending these to me. If you were asked to take this poll, what is your opinion of, uh, WIBC radio broadcaster Rob Kendall? And the polling showed overwhelming favorable opinion to the point where these guys, these guys being the Braun campaign, were like, oh crap, we got to deal with him. He really is as popular as he says he is. He really does have the approval rating amongst his listeners that he says he does. Like it's not bravado, it's not gusto. And so they said, well, we got to deal with this idiot. And then like me, they don't want to deal with me. But their own data showed that own data of the Republicans showed he is as popular as he says he is. And so they said, well, just figure out a way to get this guy on our team. And clearly the issue for me was property taxes. And so they said, okay, come up with this plan, let him help shape the plan and then tell him we're going to fight for the plan. And that's what they did. They promised me, I will never forget this meeting with Braun at state party headquarters. It was Braun and Josh Kelley, his chief of staff, who would become his chief of staff, campaign architect at the time. And Micah Beckwith. And they were saying, oh, we need you. We want you. We're going to make property taxes, issue number one, and we're forming this PAC, and we're going to spend all this money on these senators to get them to vote for property taxes. But we need you. This is exactly what it seems like they're doing with Turning Point USA right now. What is Turning Point USA's big deal? They want to engage with young people. They say that was what Charlie Kirk was very good at before his horrific assassination. That was his specialty. That's what he did. He had the voice of the young people. He had the ear of the young people. Now, whether Turning Point USA will continue to be able to do that in a post Charlie Kirk world. I don't think they're going to be nearly as effective. I think that was proven during redistricting. They don't have near the juice to move sitting lawmakers based on the fact that they sold Braun a bill of goods to get him to go all in on redistricting. Saying, we've got this. We'll move these senators, we'll have these rallies, we'll run ads. Well, that that failed miserably. That's one of the reasons they engaged with me on the property tax thing. They thought, hey, he'll get the people that will help us move the legislature. It was a power play move for them. Now, look, we sent tens of thousands of emails and phone calls and had the rally at the Statehouse. Ultimately, as we've said many, many times before, moving the Indiana General Assembly, other than from people who specifically live in the district to overcome the superintendents of the schools, the mayors, it's a heavy ask. And sometimes. Is redistricting the same way? Phone calls, emails. Sometimes you just can't do it. But Braun was has been sold probably. I don't know this for sure, but probably to some extent through his lieutenant governor, who is very tied into Turning Point USA, that this is the new magic bullet, that these guys are the new IT thing. They can save you. They can help you. Now, of course, they didn't on redistricting, they've claimed they're going to unseat all of these state senators that voted against redistricting, running basically solely on redistricting. We will see. I'm not sure that's going to go very well either, but who knows. And so Braun is doing almost the same thing he did with me. I've seen it firsthand. I've seen how this works where he says, okay, what is Turning Point USA want? Well, they want access to young people. They want to get in with young people. Okay. Let them head up these voter registration drives. Why did he hand millions of dollars in the faith initiative over to Micah Beckwith? With Micah Beckwith, his lieutenant governor, who preaches at a church that is embroiled in a massive sex scandal involving the lead pastor, of all the people in the state of Indiana, the best person to hand a faith initiative over to. It was Micah Beckwith, a guy whose church, whose boss, who, Micah Beckwith's boss, podcast co-host and best friend is embroiled in a massive sex scandal which has caused him to have to take a leave of absence. Life Church is a dumpster fire. It's it's on fire. It's complete disaster. People have fled that church left and right. Workers have left that church left and right. And yet that's the best person to head up the faith initiative. Of course not. Micah Beckwith is like the last person you would want leading anything, but Braun gave it to him because Braun wants to appease Turning Point USA because Braun believes, or has been led to believe, that Turning Point USA is the magic bullet that can help him get the faith of the people back. And so that is why yesterday he has this big press thing where he was scant on details. By the way, nobody's really talking about this, about how little detail there actually was with this big announcement about what Turning Point USA is going to do. Because they don't really know. They'll make it up as they go along. The same thing they did with me. Oh yeah, we got this PAC and we'll spend all this money. No details on how that was going to work. And it never came to fruition. They ran those ads for one day and then pulled them. Why? Because the senators, as they have done with everything else, bossed Mike Braun around. They told him how it was going to be, and they told him to sit down and shut up. And he did. Braun is all talk. He's all hat, no cattle. Braun always, always writes checks with his mouth that his actions won't cash. And so you have this sort of bizarre world now where Braun claims he's going to essentially turn over the government to a third party entity. Is that what we want? Even if we agree with the political leanings of the group, do you want your government being handed over being outsourced to a third party? Because once you allow it to happen to one group or for one group, then it's when the other guys are in charge. They're going to do it for their people. If. Do you want the, let's say there becomes a Democrat governor or a Democrat Secretary of State. Do you want Black Lives Matter being in the schools, influencing kids to vote? Do you want Black Lives Matter? Having state resources to influence young people, influence kids getting them there? Their entrance to the electoral process is Black Lives Matter or Planned Parenthood or the ACLU? The answer should be oh heck no. And if the answer is oh heck no, on on BLM or the ACLU or Planned Parenthood, the answer should be oh heck no. On Turning Point USA. It's not the job of the government to register people to vote. It's the job of the people to register to vote. The only thing that government should be doing is when you decide you want to register to vote, make that an easy process. It is in Indiana. It's very simple. It's already being done.