Seymour Republican John Rust is running for a U.S. Senate seat in 2024.
Erika Malone | The Tribune
A Marion County judge issued a ruling Thursday that a Seymour farmer and agribusinessman running for Indiana’s open U.S. Senate seat can be on the Republican ballot for the May 7 primary election.
After the ruling was issued by Marion Superior Court 12 Judge Patrick J. Dietrick, John Rust said in a news release the court has verified what he has been saying from the beginning.
“Indiana voters deserve a choice in the Republican primary,” said Rust, who announced his decision to run for the seat presently held by Republican Mike Braun of Jasper. Braun plans to run for governor in 2024.
“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision,” Dietrick wrote in his ruling. “It is with this purpose in mind that the court renders its decision.”
After Rust announced his campaign for the Senate seat in August, Amanda Lowery, chairwoman of the Jackson County Republican Party, said Rust did not have the required voting record to have his name placed on the primary ballot.
Indiana Third District Congressman Jim Banks, a Republican, already has announced he is running for the Senate seat, and he has the backing of the state’s Republican Party.
Rust, who recently resigned as president of the board of Rose Acre Farms, voted in the Republican primary in 2016 but did not vote in the 2020 election.
In 2021, the legislature amended state law to require a potential candidate’s two most recent primary elections to reflect their claimed party affiliation before they could be placed on the ballot. If not, then the chairperson of the county political party would have to certify the candidate as a member of that political party and grant them access to the ballot.
Lowery later told The Tribune she would not sign off on any candidate who did not vote in the two primaries pursuant to the first option in the statue.
On Sept. 18, Rust sued Lowery, Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales and the Indiana Election Commission to gain ballot access, arguing the law kept not only him but about 80% of Hoosiers off the ballot.
Lowery contends Rust is a Democrat and offered her affidavit listing factors she alleges she considered when declining to certify Rust as a Republican. Essentially, she took issue with his prior voting in Democratic primaries and the fact she is not aware of him volunteering for the Jackson County Republican Party or making local financial contributions to the party.
The defendants also contended Rust’s name has not yet been removed from the ballot because he cannot file a declaration of candidacy until the filing period begins Jan. 10.
Dietrick wrote waiting for Rust to be removed from the ballot adds nothing to the record to help his court address the constitutional issues.
The defendants argue Rust’s claims are not ripe because Lowery could resign, die or have a change of heart, which could allow for him to be certified. They also claim Rust could be precluded from the ballot due to other ways besides the statute or that Rust himself could die prior to the election.
The lawsuit contended the law being used to keep keep Rust off the ballot was unconstitutional at the state and federal levels, and Dietrick agreed in his 27-page order.
“ … and therefore, the defendants are enjoined from enforcing it,” he wrote.
“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,” Dietrick wrote. “The 2021 amendment to I.C. § 3-8-2-7(a)(4) 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. For the reasons set forth herein, plaintiff John Rust’s motion for an injunction is granted.”
Dietrick also ordered the defendants to pay Rust’s reasonable attorney fees.
He said the Indiana legislature’s amendment to Indiana Code concerning ballot access effectively bars and excludes the candidacies of approximately 81% of Indiana citizens.
Dietrick noted it appeared the Republican Party — which made the unprecedented move to endorse Banks — benefited from this law, rather than the state and Hoosiers.
“The distinction between wholly internal aspects of party administration on one hand and participation in state-run and state-financed elections on the other is at the heart of this case. Therefore, it is the state’s asserted interests, not the interests of the Indiana Republican Party,” the ruling said. “There is no compelling or even rational government interest being served here.”
Dietrick continued to say Hoosiers have the freedom to vote in either party primary and that voting “is not indicia of party membership or loyalty.”
He noted the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down similar restrictions to party membership that lasted 23 months while this law restricts voting Hoosiers for 48 months or more. Additionally, two candidates openly calling themselves Republicans qualified for the Democratic ballot in Owen County in 2022, an outcome which Dietrick said “is compelling proof that the statute does not work to serve the alleged state goal.”
Dietrick noted the state constitution requires a candidate to live in Indiana for two years preceding the election to be eligible. The law in question essentially doubles that.
Further, according to the state constitution, a state representative may be 21 years old. But with the voting age set at 18, most candidates would not have voted in two primaries until reaching the age of 22, the ruling said.
Dietrick added the law didn’t give Hoosiers guidelines for qualifying if they needed a party chair’s approval. Notably, he said, Rust didn’t get a list from Lowery “until after she denied him certification and only because he filed suit.”
Thursday’s ruling, however, doesn’t guarantee Rust a spot on the Republican ballot — he must still gather 500 signatures from each of the state’s nine congressional districts — but means he cannot be denied from participating due to his voting history.
His primary opponent, Banks, continued to denigrate his “Democrat” opponent and referenced a recent court battle involving the Rust family, including John Rust.
Egg farmer Rust stepped down from the board of his embattled family farm, Rose Acre Farms, earlier this year. Last month, a jury found that Rose Acre, one of the nation’s largest egg distributors, had purposefully manipulated its supply with competitors to increase the price of eggs. The egg farms have been fined millions.
“If Democrat John Rust gets his name on the ballot, then I look forward to comparing his liberal background and criminal price gouging scheme with my conservative record,” Banks told the Capital Chronicle. “As an Afghanistan veteran, I will never back down from a fight to save our great country from the radicals who want to tear it down.”
But Rust likened it to the biblical story of David and Goliath, in which a smaller and weaker party overcame a giant.
“I think everything they’ve done against me to try to keep me off the ballot has made me stronger because it’s David versus Goliath,” he said. “They keep trying to stone me, to say, ‘You know, you should not run. You’re not allowed to run. You’re not one of us. You’re not an establishment candidate.’ And that’s not me. I’m an outsider. I’m a farmer. I am committed, and I am going to run, and I will absolutely win.”
Rust said Indiana is sick of what the establishment is doing to them.
“The establishment tried and failed to rig this election for their hand-picked candidate,” he said. “Our landmark victory was not just for me but for 80% of Hoosiers who have been disenfranchised by the political class in both Washington and Indianapolis. This isn’t the last time I’m going to fight back against the political establishment and win. Game on.”
Whitney Downard with Indiana Capital Chronicle contributed to this story.