Diego Morales Could Cost Indiana Republicans Major Election Loss as Greg Ballard and Beau Bayh Gain Momentum

We’d lose a whole bunch of show content if Diego loses at convention. Now, I love my state more than I love my show. I love better government more than I love my show. I would gladly, if you said, Rob, you got to take the content hit to get rid of Diego at convention, I would take that immediately, no questions asked. But in this article, I try to walk through what the fall actually looks like if the Republicans go with Diego. And look, you guys know, and I’ve said this for years, the only way our government is going to change is if the Republicans start losing some elections. One of the reasons the Republicans govern so poorly is because they don’t fear losing. They actually fear, as they saw just a week or so ago, the only real chance they have of losing is in the primary. Now, this one was a little different. The script was kind of flipped. Usually it’s establishment people that all they got to do is appeal to the donors and the lobbyists and the political class, and they’ll raise enough money to fend off conservative challengers. Now, in this case, the money this time came in from the Trump people, from Turning Point USA, from the Banks dark money group, Banks affiliated dark money group. But normally the Republicans operate on, hey, if I just don’t make any donors or lobbyists mad or I don’t make any local government officials mad, there won’t be any candidate recruitment against me and I’m going to be okay. And that’s because they don’t fear the Democrats. They take the conservatives for granted. Indiana Republicans take the conservatives for granted because we, as conservatives, have done a horrible job of just voting out of fear for Republicans no matter what.

Indiana Republicans Face Pressure to Remove Diego Morales Before General Election

And until the Republicans start having a fear of losing something, they’re not going to govern better. That’s what this has always been about for me. You’re never going to get good governance from the Democrats. The only shot you have is with the Republicans. And right now, the way the Republicans behave, because they don’t fear losing, we’re not getting anything. And so really, if you’re invested in better governance, Diego losing this fall, the Republicans losing that office this fall, is your best shot to wake up the Republicans. And I’ve told everybody, I’ve said, if you get approached about signing the petition for Ballard, I encourage you to do it. Doesn’t mean you have to vote for him, doesn’t mean you have to support him, doesn’t mean you have to campaign for him, doesn’t mean you have to like him. But the more people that are on the ballot, the better conversation we’re going to have this fall about how the Republicans have actually governed.

Greg Ballard’s Potential Ballot Run Could Pull Moderate Republican Voters Away From GOP

Look, if Ballard doesn’t get on the ballot and it’s Bayh against Morales, so what? In this article, what I do is I walk through with the premise, the scenario with the premise that Greg Ballard gets the 37,000 signatures, which I think he will. We talked about this yesterday, knowing who’s running Ballard’s campaign and Ballard himself. I don’t see any way they would have ventured into this endeavor without a pretty much a guarantee they were going to be able to get those signatures. And so in this article, I operate from the premise of Ballard being on the ballot, and what a campaign for the Republicans looks like with both By and Ballard campaigning against Diego. And you’re going to have Beau Bayh the Democrat who’s going to raise over $10 million. I’ve talked to multiple people connected to that campaign who have said he is definitely easily going to raise $10 million. And then you couple that with Ballard, who let’s face it, Ballard isn’t even a candidate yet, and he’s raised $300,000. He will raise easily over $1 million. And so you’re going to have one candidate with more than 10 million to spend. You’re going to have one candidate with over a million to spend. And the whole premise of these campaigns is going to be, Diego is unelectable. Diego cannot govern. Diego is corrupt. Diego is unethical. Diego uses the office as a 24/7 campaign machine. One of the reasons Diego gets a free pass, keeps getting elected both at the convention and in the general election in 2022, was nobody can spread ads across the state telling people what he actually is, telling people the stuff he’s done in the office. So we know here in central Indiana. It’s why Jeff Maurer, the Libertarian with no money, got over 105,000 votes in 22. Jeff Maurer, if you look at really about a 20 county area around central Indiana, essentially got about 10% of the vote, just under 10% of the vote. He ended up with less than 6% overall. Because once you get outside of, well, we’ll just say it, the what was the Rob Kendall listening area, people don’t know about all the crap Diego’s pulled. But they will know if one guy has more than 10 million to tell everybody, and the other guy has more than a million to tell everybody. And you got one guy in Bayh just beating the hell out of Diego, and then you’ve got Ballard running on, hey, I get it. Diego’s kind of a sleazebag. And by and by, you guys don’t want to vote for Democrats. Why don’t you just come over here to old Uncle Greg? You guys remember me, right? I was the popular mayor of Indianapolis. I’m the reasonable Republican. There’s going to be a crap ton of people that are going to vote for Greg Ballard if that’s the option.

Beau Bayh Campaign and Massive Ad Spending Could Expose Morales Statewide

And you know, what’s interesting is I talked to one delegate the other day and this person told me, and this is one of the people, there are many, by the way, who are actively looking at, are there other options? She said, under no circumstance will I vote for By. But she didn’t, and I think it was deliberate, she didn’t say anything about under no circumstance would I vote for Greg Ballard, because having this conversation with this person about what they’re going to do in the fall, if Diego’s their nominee, and I think there are a ton, a ton of people, because Indiana has a track record of this. By the way, let’s go back to 2012, when Richard Mourdock had that complete meltdown on the debate stage about abortion. Andrew Horning was the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate at the time. Andrew Horning had no money. Look, I love Andy. Most of you hearing my voice, you’ve heard of Andrew Horning before. He’s a very nice guy. He’s incredibly intelligent. He’s also a career candidate, and he never raises any money. But he was a Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate at the time, and he got thousands upon thousands of votes that went his way in the final week of the campaign, after Mourdock had his meltdown, because a bunch of Republicans said, we’re not voting for a Democrat, but we’re also not voting for that. That was Mourdock’s comment on abortion. And they went to the safe harbor, which was Horning. Well, if there’s a track record of this, of more establishment type Republicans leaving the Republican when the Republican is so egregious, like a Diego is, if Andy Horning could pull it, then certainly these people will leave and go to a beloved, respected former mayor of Indianapolis and Greg Ballard, who will have a lot of money. Look, this is not some thing of Rob Kendall hates the Republicans. So it’s some fantasy revenge thing that I wrote a column about. I tried to write this from an, like, what do I actually think could happen? And I really believe that if Ballard is on the ballot and Diego is the nominee, the Republicans will lose that office. Now, I don’t think the state’s going to be enamored with Bayh. I don’t think there’s going to be something where he wins 55% of the vote. I’m not saying that at all. But I think there’s a very real world where between Ballard and Bayh, nd let’s just say collectively, the two of them can raise 12 to $15 million, which is definitely not unreasonable. And look, by the way, if we get to say September and there’s polling that shows that race is close, the national Democrats are coming in on this one, given who the Bayhs are and the idea that the Democrats could get some level of relevance back in the state, you’ll see big national money come into this race. It could be 20 million by the time it’s all said and done, because the Democrats know what Diego is and all the crap he’s pulled. And the Democrats know that if they can get By into that office, they can open the doors to everything that Diego’s done, expose all of it and who he’s done it with.

Republicans Fear Long-Term Political Consequences if Morales Remains the Nominee

Look, there are a lot of pretty strong theories on who paid for that trip to India. And I’ve talked to multiple people not connected with each other, who have told me the exact same thing on who paid for that trip to India. And I think that that’s going to come out, who paid for that trip to India. And if indeed it is who people have said, that’s going to look really bad for Diego. Even by Diego standards. And this is the amazing thing about the Republicans. They all know this is waiting for them. You think with $12 million the Bayhs can’t figure it out? My guess is they’ve already figured it out. If I figured it out with $7, they’ve probably figured it out with several million dollars. And it’s like the Republicans have to know. This is what blows my mind about people like Jim Banks and Todd Rokita coming out in support of Diego. They have to know that all of this stuff is going to come to the surface. All the things that the Republicans have pushed aside, have ignored, just don’t talk about when you ask them about it, excuse it away, laugh at it, chuckle about it. They have to know this is all going to get exposed. And to many people, it’ll be the first time By has outfundraised Diego. And then when you offer a guy in the middle like Greg Ballard, who simply saying, hey, if you’re tired of politics as usual on both sides, why don’t you consider me? The ramifications of Diego, and like I said, read the article, I go into detail on this, but they go so far beyond just the election itself. If you’re a like a dye in the wool Republican, if you’re a die hard Republican, do you really want a third party with primary ballot access that’s going to be able to run candidates for governor and senator and attorney general in 2028?