The state of Indiana is appealing a court ruling allowing Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Rust to appear on the May 2024 primary ballot.
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Supreme Court has fast-tracked a lawsuit over whether a Seymour businessman may run in the Republican Party primary to fill an upcoming vacancy in the U.S. Senate seat and will hear public oral arguments in the case in less than two weeks.
John Rust of Seymour, the former chairman of the board of Rose Acre Farms, announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for the seat being vacated after one term by Republican Indiana Sen. Mike Braun.
Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks also is running for the Senate seat and is widely considered the favorite, having gained the party’s official endorsement in an unprecedented pre-primary announcement. Meanwhile, Banks has attacked Rust over his prior voting record and other matters and the wealthy Rust has responded with attacks against Banks.
Rust ran into trouble getting on the ballot, however, because he had not voted in the two prior Republican Party primary elections as required by a law passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 2021. That law provides an exception, allowing a candidate to run if the county party chairman agrees, but Jackson County Republican Party Chair Amanda Lowery declined to permit Rust on the ballot.
Rust sued, and a Marion County judge ruled in his favor, declaring the so-called “affiliation statute” law unconstitutional.
“When the immense power of the state is turned toward and upon its citizens in such a way that it imperils a sacred and cherished right of those same citizens, the state’s actions must be for an articulated compelling and pressing reason, and it must be exercised in the most transparent and least restrictive and least intrusive ways possible,” Marion Superior Judge Patrick J. Dietrick wrote in ruling for Rust on Dec. 7.
The law “fails in this regard. It unduly burdens Hoosiers’ long recognized right to freely associate with the political party of one’s choosing and to cast one’s vote effectively,” the judge wrote.
The state, however, appealed the decision on behalf of Lowery, Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales and the Indiana Election Commission, and the Indiana Supreme Court expedited the case as a matter of significant public interest. Oral arguments will be heard at 9 a.m. Feb. 12, and will be webcast by the court at in.gov/courts/supreme/arguments.
The state has garnered support in friends of the court briefs from the Indiana Republican Party, while Rust has received support in friends of the court briefs from Common Cause Indiana and the League of Women Voters of Indiana.
The court will likely rule in an expedited manner because the Indiana primary will take place on May 7, and absentee ballots must be sent to voters who have previously filed an approved application by March 23.
