Breaking: Lt. Gov. Crouch set to announce 2024 bid today

The GOP gubernatorial primary heats up.

Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Sen. Mike Braun are both expected to make dueling gubernatorial announcements today, joining Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden, a former economic development appointee of former Gov. Mike Pence who has been in the race since last spring. They could also be joined by the sitting Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers, according to a person familiar with his thinking. They are battling to succeed GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb, who is term-limited.

Braun, who filed papers to run last week and is a multi-millionaire from his career running a distribution company, is expected to announce at an Indianapolis steakhouse where a dry-aged, bone-in ribeye goes for $94—a far different set of optics from Braun's Senate campaign in 2018 during which he campaigned in just a blue collared shirt. Crouch, meanwhile, is slated to make the leap in her hometown of Evansville.

THE MONEY

• Crouch and Doden will both finish the year with $3 million in the bank.

• According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Braun has a net worth of $136 million— meaning he could self-fund.

THE PLAYERS

• Doden has hired the Republican firm WPA Intelligence, led by Chris Wilson, as well as Sen. Todd Young’s general consultant, Cam Savage's Limestone Strategies.

• Crouch has the backing of the GOP financier Bob Grand.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

• Crouch: “I believe our governor made the best decisions he could based upon the information that was available,” Crouch said of Holcomb, who issued a stay-at-home order and shuttered non-essential businesses in the early days of the pandemic. She added: “The issues of 2022 will not be the issues of 2024.”

• Doden: “We understand that my background is not one coming from years and years and years and politics. I’m somebody that’s coming from the outside.  I think once we get our story out there, we’re going to compete really well.”

Good Monday morning, and welcome back to IMPORTANTVILLE.

WHERE’S GOV. HOLCOMB? He'll deliver brief remarks at the Indiana Statehouse during an event at noon celebrating Indiana’s anniversary of statehood.

THE LATEST FROM DANIELS WORLD

Meanwhile, Mitch Daniels has told me he’s “disinclined” to run for governor, but hasn’t ruled out a Senate bid.

“A senator is one of 100 in lawmaking — but, more importantly in this case, a voice,” Mark Lubbers, Daniels’ longtime confidant and a top political adviser early in his gubernatorial administration, told me. “For someone of Mitch’s experience and reputation it would be a way to have a role in shaping national policy that would be larger than the official role — 1 of 100. Few if any senators have his breadth of past roles or his reputation. So his voice would count for more.” Lubbers added: “He could truly be a unique character.”

IMPORTANTVILLE READS

“'Sense of betrayal': Indiana Republican censured over same-sex marriage vote,” by Cami Mondeaux in the Washington Examiner

A group of Indiana Republicans drafted a censure letter and sent it to Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) after he voted in favor of passing a bill that would codify same-sex marriage into federal law.

The Cass County Republican Party censured the Indiana senator in a letter that was sent on Thursday, expressing disappointment in Young’s support for the legislation and citing a "sense of betrayal." Although a censure does not remove a senator from office, the letter acts as a statement of disapproval and can affect one's standing or reputation.

IMPORTANTVILLE WATCH

Former Vice President Mike Pence gets a standing ovation at a rodeo in Nevada

That’s all for this morning. Thanks for reading.