There are points to interject here.

1) Nearly all my life I’d lived in Indiana. I now live in Peoria, & the First Amendment protects speech in all 50 States. 1/10

2) Only once, until now, has Indiana been more than a footnote in history. In the early 1920s, the KKK was as strong in Indiana as in any other state. [FN1] Klan dominance ended after its leader was convicted of homicide. [FN2] 2/10

3) The (estimated) half-million Hoosier kluxers didn’t dissolve, but they…

With a Presidential primary late in the cycle, [FN1] gerrymandering by over two decades of GOP control draining doubt from most races, and politicians on the national stage w/charisma such as that of Mike Pence, political culture of Indiana (“IN”) garners little national notice. 1/9

That should change. On 11/3, IN elects a new Secretary of State (“SofS”). [FN2] Both “major” parties’ chose their nominees at conventions that were as rancorous as the weeks that led up to them. The SofS…

IN’s Lt Gov [FN1] posted cheeky insults that were re-posted on the SnydeReport [FN2] & the topic chosen by Le Merde de Poulet [FN3]: IN’s Democratic Party’s nomination of Beau Bayh for Sec’y of State (“SoS”), [FN4] who would be IN’s chief elections officer. [FN5] 1/15

The election for SoS is higher profile than usual: IN’s Democratic Party can win its 1st Statewide office since 2012, [FN6] after IN’s Gen’l Assembly ignored trump tantrums & refused to re-draw U.S. House lines.…

On 6/6/26, after weeks of acrimony, Indiana’s State Democratic Party, at convention, nominated Beau Bayh [FN1] for Secretary of State (“SoS”). That office is created by Indiana’s Constitution. [FN2] As in many States, the SoS is Indiana’s chief elections officer. [FN3] 1/14

There are several factors that lent to an environment ripe acrimony in the weeks pre-convention. 1) Last December, in special session, the Indiana Senate voted down a mid-decade re-drawing of U.S. House districts…