Indiana GOP Primary Battle: Baird vs. Haggard Controversy Highlights PAC Ties, Data Center Deals, and Political Ethics

The Baird people sent me this story I’m about to talk about, and you know what I told them, I said tell them to stop with the franked mail, it’s ridiculous. So Baird’s not a good guy in any of this either. However, Craig Haggard also rotten. Let’s talk about it. So the Fourth Congressional District, Baird’s the incumbent, Craig Haggard is the state rep. He is a state rep running against Baird in the primary, and then there’s a third guy. You guys have seen his ads on this show, John Piper, he’s a veterinarian, also running. Haggard, you will remember his name because Haggard is the guy whose wife allegedly had the AI porn made of her and was allegedly shared in Micah Beckwith’s office. Brooke Haggard is her name. Haggard, rightfully so, blew a gasket, demanded justice, and then a few months later he’s posing for pictures with Micah Beckwith.

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Look, I don’t know about you guys, but if somebody’s making AI, if you believe somebody made AI porn of your wife, which Haggard appeared to think that it happened, based on the comments he made on our show and comments I read in other publications, he very clearly appeared to think that it happened, but it tells you how much politics warps people. If you thought somebody made AI porn of your wife, or somebody’s office, the office they oversee or employees in the office of somebody made and shared AI porn of your wife, if you thought that happened, would you pose for pictures with that guy. Haggard’s a military guy. He could have strangled Micah Beckwith on the spot, and he’s posing for pictures with him. It comes back to what we talked about when we had A.J. Feeney Ruiz on last week, and he talked about how Todd Rokita changed, how politics changed Todd Rokita, how Todd Rokita came in as a guy that was willing to be independent, was a more moderate Republican, was willing to, as a secretary of state, be about good governance, not the politics, took key positions that were oftentimes in contrast with his own party, like with redistricting, and how the guy just changed over time and became something unrecognizable today, which is not probably who he really is, but he so wanted to elevate himself politically. Politics ruins everyone. It crushes even the good people.

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And I think with Craig Haggard, we’ve seen this twice, one the stuff with the AI porn allegedly being made and shared of his wife, where he’s posing for a photo with the guy who the eyewitness account that we had on our show, Erin Sheridan, the senior advisor to Beckwith’s office, told the account in great detail, has presumably told the same thing to law enforcement exactly what she told us, because she admitted she had talked to the Marion County Prosecutor, that the people who were allegedly sharing the AI porn said not only was Micah aware of it, that she told Micah's chief of staff and nothing was done about it. Would you pose for a picture with that guy? But in politics, whatever the event was, whatever the thing was, Haggard believed it was beneficial to him, so he did it. Politics ruins everyone. Haggard’s also the guy that went on our show and said how great the maps were before redistricting. Oh they’re awesome, oh they’re wonderful, Greg Steuerwald, he did such a great job. And then Charlie Kirk, when he was still alive, threatened to come after any member of the General Assembly who wasn’t for redistricting, and Craig Haggard changed his mind. Politics ruins everyone. And by the way, if a podcaster can bully you into changing your mind, he was on our show being emphatic about how great the maps were, if a podcaster can bully you into changing your mind, then you can’t count on that guy for anything in Congress. That should have been the ad that Jim Baird ran. If a podcaster can bully you into changing your mind, you can’t count on that guy for anything. Anyway, point being, that’s who Craig Haggard is. So Haggard and Baird are running against each other. Piper’s the third guy in the race. Truth be told, I’m probably going to vote for Piper, not because he’s running ads on this show, but because the other two are so awful. Like 90% of my votes are protest votes, every year, within a general and primary, not because I like the other person running, but because the person in there is so bad. And I really wanted to vote for Craig Haggard. I kind of thought I was going to be able to, because I knew he was running for Congress, and then he lied to me and he lied to my audience. You can’t vote for some guy who lied to your audience, and I can’t vote for Baird because of all the spending and the franked mail.

Super PAC Funding and Data Center Ties Come Under Scrutiny

Anyway, here’s the point. So the campaign of Jim Baird sent out a hit piece on Craig Haggard over his ties to a data center super PAC that the Baird camp is alleging failed to properly disclose their donations to help Haggard. So let’s talk about the ridiculousness of all of these people. The super PAC is called Liberty Unchained. These names of these super PACs are just the most hilarious thing ever because often they seem like they’re doing the exact opposite of whatever their name is, whatever the name is just assume they’re doing the opposite. So the Baird people say that this Liberty Unchained super PAC failed to properly disclose what they are calling independent expenditures. Basically what that means is this PAC did things on supporting Haggard’s and they didn’t disclose it properly. They spent an amount of money for Haggard in support of Haggard and they didn’t properly disclose it. Now they’re not saying Haggard did anything. They’re saying the super PAC, which has clear connections to Haggard, is what they’re alleging. According to Baird’s camp, the treasurer of this PAC is a guy named Alex Carroll, and he owns Lifeline Data Centers. The address for this PAC, according to Baird, matches the address for this company. And according to Baird, Craig Haggard’s dad has given money to these guys. So we’re forming a pattern. There appears to be a pattern of connection. Baird’s camp then goes after Haggard for two things. One, Haggard co-authored House Bill 1333, which would have gutted local control over stopping data centers. We’ve talked about this bill, it would have made it basically impossible for local governments to stop data center developments. So you’ve got Haggard’s dad giving money to this super PAC, the guy running the PAC owns a data center company, and you’ve got Haggard offering a bill that would have gutted the ability of local governments to stop data centers. They also point out Haggard is listed as the real estate agent on farmland being sold to support a data center development.

Campaign Finance and Ethics Concerns Highlight Broader Issues in Indiana Politics

So you’ve got Haggard authoring a bill that would have gutted local control over stopping data centers, and you’ve got him listed as the real estate agent on farmland being sold to support a data center development, which would mean he’s making money off data centers if that’s true. And then you’ve got this super PAC, which Haggard’s dad is giving money to, getting in trouble for not properly disclosing independent expenditures related to Haggard’s campaign. This is why this show is so valuable. Who else is talking about this? And I knew when the Baird people said we have something for you, I know what they’re doing, I’m not naive to it, but you’re all rotten. I told them I’m pointing out how rotten your guy is too. And Piper, I don’t know, we offered him a chance to come on the show, he could be as well, I don’t know.