INDIANAPOLIS — Micha Beckwith stunned Indiana’s political community on Saturday after being chosen by Republican delegates for lieutenant governor over the hand-picked choice of Mike Braun and former president Donald Trump.

Braun, the US Sen. who won the Republican primary for governor in May, announced weeks ago that he preferred State Rep. Julia McGuire as his choice for Lieutenant Gov.

[caption id="attachment_94482" align="alignright" width="260"] Beckwith[/caption]

But on Saturday, Beckwith, a conservative pastor and co-host of the “Jesus, Sex and Politics” podcast who spent a year campaigning for the position, won 51% of the votes from delegates.

The upset came just two days after Trump issued an endorsement for McGuire, which appeared to be a last minute effort to make sure McGuire had enough support.

Afterward, Braun issued a statement about Beckwith's future role.

“There’s no doubt about this, I’m in charge, and Micah is going to be someone that works with me. If he doesn’t, I think that means it will probably not be as fruitful,” Braun said.

The Indiana Democratic Party also responded to the news, with Party Chairman Mike Schmuhl saying, “Micah Beckwith’s win shows how out-of-the-mainstream extremism has hijacked the current Indiana GOP.”

Schmuhl went on to note that Beckwith is “dangerous for business, dangerous for women, dangerous for families, and dangerous for Indiana’s future.”

Braun will now run with Beckwith against Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jennifer McCormick, a former state education chief, and Libertarian nominee Donald Rainwater. Democrats haven’t won a statewide office in Indiana since 2012.

Beckwith, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress from central Indiana in 2020, is known for his far-right stances on gender, sexuality and abortion, and cast himself as a political outsider who would keep the governor’s office in check, limit property taxes and oppose school efforts to support the LGBTQ+ community.

The Indiana Republican Party said in a statement that with Beckwith’s nomination as Braun’s running mate and state Attorney General Todd Rokita’s nomination Saturday for a second term in that post, “the statewide Republican ticket is set and ready to win in November!”

McGuire, from Indianapolis, was a policy analyst for Senate Republicans until 2022, when she unseated a representative who had angered other Republicans in part by repeatedly pushing a complete ban on abortion.

Editor's note: Indiana Associated Press and Network Indiana contributed to this report.

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