Indiana’s politics was apolitical and focused on statewide issues for many decades. No longer.

In Indiana, a state that is traditionally Republican and dominated by Republicans, the GOP primary for governor has been so divisive. Lt. Suzanne Crouch is one of many candidates running to replace Gov. Eric Holcomb says she only spoke to him one time in the past six months.

Crouch is not seen as the natural successor by the governor, and even his newly installed GOP state chair has accused her of creating “toxic” dynamics in his party. She and five others have invested a total of $40 million in the race.

What may surprise you the most is the focus of this campaign, not the amount of money or the level of vitriol. In the run-up the Tuesday primary, the focus has been almost exclusively on national issues: Sen. Mike Braun’s now-recanted Black Lives Matter support, where the candidates stood on China and immigration. This is a stark illustration of the nationalization at all levels of politics in the age of Donald Trump.

Indiana has been a non-factor in a state whose politics have for decades focused on humdrum concerns such as reducing wait times at DMVs, implementing daylight savings time, and fixing property tax.

Former Gov. Mitch Daniels. “I mean, I don’t know who they are kidding?” Mitch Daniels said. “The job will eventually be about other matters.”

It is not common for national issues to influence local elections. However, they have a profound impact on politics in this deeply red state. Holcomb and Daniels have both said they will not endorse candidates in this race. It’s also changing the tone of the debate.

“If this campaign is about nothing, then it’s all about the flaws of the candidates and the suffocating character of national politics,” said Pete Seat. He was a former Indiana GOP spokesperson and George W. Bush White House spokesperson.

He said: “Candidates allowed themselves to be swayed by the vixens of national politics, and filled the airwaves in increasingly hyperbolic advertisements about fighting China and building the wall to connect with most likely primary voters.”

It’s a strange place to be in a state that has been ruled by Republicans for almost two decades. The state is known for its orderly, genteel successions under the strong state party. Mike Pence and Daniels both vowed to refrain from negative campaigning.

Holcomb, a relative moderat in the style Daniels, his mentor, governed, took to the social media early this year to criticize the field for their “slogans,” and “empty promises” during the campaign.

“I think it’s an unfortunate trend in many ways, and may be inevitable for federal elections,” said Daniels. Daniels, after leaving Purdue University where he was president for over a decade, weighed his own gubernatorial or senatorial bids. If it dominates state and local election, it will crowd out issues that people can actually do something about while talking about issues they cannot.

Since 2012, Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in this state. The Republican candidate is heavily favored to beat Jennifer McCormick in November. McCormick was a Democrat in 2016, but she switched parties during the Trump era.

The irony for Republicans is that the field of candidates that has been historically large and that is focused so heavily on national issues is partly because few candidates wanted to compete for Braun’s Senate seat. They cited a lack of interest in dealing with the dysfunction in Washington.

It was nearly three years ago that Fort Wayne developer Eric Doden began an listening tour. In December 2022, Crouch and Braun both announced their candidacy within days of each other. A large GOP bench, which was largely made up of younger Republicans, chose to attempt to succeed Holcomb rather than compete to solve the D.C. gridlock.

Braun is expected to win the contest on Tuesday, as he is the frontrunner with Trump’s support.

“He was the leader at first.” He has name identification. Braun has good money and Trump’s endorsement. I can’t see how he won’t win.

In January, Doden and Brad Chambers (the state’s Commerce Secretary), the two socially more moderate candidates, began plotting to knock the other candidate out of the race. Doden’s wealthy parents, who made millions in the steel industry, poured millions of dollars into his campaign. His campaign was quiet over the holidays. Chambers’ campaign weighed whether or not to send Doden’s dad a memo in which he offered him a “seat” at the Chambers administration if he dropped out of the race. But it never happened.

Doden’s adviser claimed that Chambers had been stating for months in private that he entered the race far too late and should have dropped earlier to stop Braun from splitting the field.

The worst blood was between Crouch, and Holcomb. Crouch gave Holcomb a “C”, in an attempt to distance herself, from his moderate management style during the pandemic – ordering non-essential business to shut down.

Kyle Hupfer is the chair of the GOP. “She wants the credit for everything that’s positive, but she also wants to avoid anything that could be perceived as negative. She wants to create a wedge to try and get positive results from it,” said Hupfer. “I don’t think this is a very honourable approach.”

Crouch declined to respond through a spokesperson and said that her campaign was “about the future” of Indiana.

She claimed that she did not communicate with Holcomb because she wanted “their freedom to run their own campaign.”

Hupfer stated that “it doesn’t require a political science degree to understand what she wants.” “She wants to have her cake and eat it too,” Hupfer said.