Republican Micah Beckwith, Democrat Terry Goodin and Libertarian Tonya Hudson — all candidates for lieutenant governor — speak during a debate on Tuesday, August 13, 2024. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Indiana’s lieutenant governor doesn’t helm the state like the governor or control spending like lawmakers, but officeholders still wield significant power — and are on the ballot.
A lieutenant governor is first in line to lead the state if a sitting governor can’t fulfill the top spot’s duties, and presides over the Senate, casting tie-breaking votes.
The role also includes oversight of agencies dealing with farmers, rural affairs, housing and tourism, and influence over mental health and disability policy.
Republican pastor Micah Beckwith, Democrat and former rural development officer Terry Goodin and Libertarian real estate broker Tonya Hudson hope to be Indiana’s next lieutenant governor.
They each sat down with the Capital Chronicle — by phone, over Zoom and in person — to re-introduce themselves and outline how they’d handle the role’s duties and opportunities.
Hoosiers will vote for lieutenant governor as part of a ticket. Each candidate is tied to their party’s gubernatorial nominee: Beckwith to Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, Goodin to Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Hudson to Libertarian Donald Rainwater.
The Republican nominee
Beckwith, a Michigan native, moved to Indiana in the early 2000s to attend a private Christian university — and stayed.
He and his wife, Susan, have two young children.
Beckwith is a pastor at Life Church’s Noblesville campus who hosts a podcast called “Jesus, Sex and Politics” with another pastor and teaches constitutional history at a Carmel Christian school.
He made his first foray into politics in 2016, when he ran for party delegate and became a vice-precinct committeeman. Beckwith also launched a long-shot 2020 congressional campaign but lost the primary election to sitting Rep. Victoria Spartz.
GOP delegates narrowly chose him in June over Braun’s preferred choice for a running-mate, after an unusual yearlong campaign for the convention nod.
The conservative often courts controversy, sparking a firestorm earlier this month for likening the Democrat ticket to the “Jezebel spirit,” an insult with biblical roots.
“Anything I say, by the far-left media, will tend to get blown out of proportion,” Beckwith told the Capital Chronicle. “… I don’t go into any situation saying, ‘Oh, I’m gonna say something that’s controversial or make news.’ I think I speak very plainly, and I think I address the issues that people want addressed.”
He made national headlines recently while answering questions at Monroe County Republican Party Dinner this month. Beckwith said he’d fire state employees working against elected officials’ agendas — and would start by scrutinizing those with pronouns in their email signatures, according to footage from The Bloomingtonian.
While agencies are led by the gubernatorial administration’s appointees, Beckwith noted that middle- and lower-tier employees often “outlive” political transitions — and may resist changes.
He said Hoosiers have voted in conservatives to run Indiana’s government, but accused liberal “unelected bureaucrats” of attempting to “skirt the will of the people.” Beckwith cited the Indiana Department of Health as an example; the agency has fought to avoid disclosing individual terminated pregnancy reports to an anti-abortion group.
Terry Goodin
Goodin, an Indiana native, still raises cattle at the farm on which he was raised. He has three children with his wife, Darcie.
Goodin spent much of his career in education — as a public school teacher, assistant principal and superintendent — while serving two decades in the House.
He left in 2020 as one of the Democratic caucus’ most conservative members. Goodin says he was wrong about his earlier views on same-sex marriage and abortion rights — he’s now supportive — but maintains a “strong” belief in gun rights.
President Joe Biden appointed him to lead Indiana rural development efforts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022. Then, he got a phone call from McCormick.
Goodin recounted traveling the state while working at the USDA, saying, “What I saw really disturbed me. Once you got past the McDonald’s and the dollar store, and you started getting into these downtowns of these communities, they were pretty desolate.”
Goodin said the idea of helping “lift these communities back up” motivated him to leave a job he liked and agree to McCormick’s offer.
He knocked the state’s Republican supermajority — adding, “They’re my friends, but their ideas are old” — and promised the ticket would bring in experts and a “proactive,” “holistic” approach.
Tonya Hudson
Hudson, also from Indiana, is on her third bid for office after joining her party just five years ago. She unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2020 and 2022.
“I was a lifelong Republican before I became a Libertarian,” she told the Capital Chronicle. “What happened was I got just so fed up with the party.”
Hudson said she had considered herself an Abraham Lincoln- and Ronald Reagan-style Republican, but felt unmoored. Being an independent, she said, was “lonely.”
She joined the Libertarian Party in 2019 after coming across its platform and agreeing with what she saw.
Hudson has a son and grandchildren, alongside an American Staffordshire Terrier named Independence.
She’s worked as a real estate broker for 18 years, with a soft spot for first-time buyers and sellers moving on to their next stage in life — and a strong distaste for property taxes.
She pledged to meet with leaders of agencies under the lieutenant governor’s office to ensure “they have what they need to run … efficiently.”
But, she added, “I have no intention of micro-managing. That’s not the job.”
Farmers and rural affairs
The lieutenant governor oversees the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) and the Office of Community & Rural Affairs (OCRA).
Asked what changes he might make to benefit farmers and other rural residents, Beckwith boosted his ticket’s property tax reform plan. He also spoke of the need for balance between farmers’ property rights, neighbors’ property values and state energy needs in siting renewable energy installations. Such developments have roiled Hoosier communities.
Beckwith pushed for a “free market approach” that shields the state from “crazy nonsense” but otherwise lets local governments, developers and landowners find their own solutions.
He also wanted to examine how OCRA awards grants. He’d heard complaints on the campaign trail that communities “that really don’t need the money” were applying and winning funds.
Beckwith promised to sit down with county leaders, listen to their goals and needs, and direct them to other agencies or programs for assistance, if needed.
Goodin, meanwhile, said the state’s incentive packages are structured for cities and have impacted county population growth versus decline. He added that he didn’t believe rural farmers have access to the same levels of incentives as suburban and urban businesses.
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“Those are small businesses,” he said of farms. “Small businesses in the state of Indiana are the number-one job creator here. … How do we allow folks to be able to take take a jump, take a risk, and help them get across the line there to be successful?”
Hudson promised to focus on young Hoosiers, outlining ideas for farm-related internships and food-awareness programs featuring school-grown produce served in cafeterias.
She also criticized the “heavy burden of rules and regulations.”
“Farmers and ranchers should be able to do what they want to do on their own land,” she said. Loosening hemp restrictions, she added, could allow farmers to profit off related biodiesel and concrete innovations.
Housing and mental health
Also overseen by the lieutenant governor are the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) and the Indiana Destination Development Corp. (IDDC).
Current Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch has also expanded the office’s role in mental health and disability policy. She founded the Indiana Mental Health Roundtable and is Gov. Eric Holcomb’s designee on the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Task Force.
Beckwith said he’d already spoken with IHCDA leader Jacob Sipe and thought the agency was “doing a good job” of “finding unique and practical solutions to address the housing crisis.”
He said he’d build off Crouch’s mental health efforts. He envisioned greater government collaboration with religious organizations and other nonprofits to “beat back this health crisis.”
“It’s the government calling on nonprofits to do the work that the government’s really not good at doing. You know, government’s not great at taking care of people,” Beckwith said.
Read more: Lieutenant governor candidates debate water policy, property tax
He highlighted Shepherd Community Center, a Christian nonprofit focused on Indianapolis’ near Eastside, for helping residents struggling with homelessness, addiction and food insecurity.
Goodin said the state has focused on workforce housing but needs more options for elderly and disabled residents. He also identified rural housing shortages as a factor in population decline.
“What we’ve done is, is the state of Indiana said, ‘Okay, they need to build so many houses in this town,’ and developers go there. The Legislature passes incentives for that community … and (they) then build all those homes there — we forget about everywhere else in Indiana,” he said. “So when we do those incentives, we got to make sure we level the playing field so every county can be successful in growing at the rate they want to grow.”
Goodin agreed the office should stay involved in mental health policy.
“If something goes wrong, a lot of times, those folks end up homeless, or they end up in jail or whatever, because there’s nowhere to help,” he said.
Goodin pushed for more short-term and transitional housing options to help Hoosiers recover and “move forward.”
Hudson said she wanted to ensure IHCDA’s programs distribute funds equitably and don’t negatively “interfere with the marketplace.”
Her approach to mental health would emphasize collaboration with local governments.
“Libertarians don’t think big government should be getting into people’s personal business, but at the same time, we want to be there to support the local level: county commissioners, the mayors of the towns, those are the ones,” Hudson said.
Working with lawmakers
Because the lieutenant governor presides over the Senate, an officeholder can play a large role in shepherding the governor’s agenda through the legislative process.
Beckwith said his approach was “all about relationships.”
He’s already started talking with lawmakers about problems like helping struggling assisted living facilities, overseen by the Family and Social Services Agency, “get back on track.”
“I’ve met with a group of assisted living facility organizations, and they were saying, ‘Man, we’re dying. … The rules were changed on us midstream. Can you help us?’ So, I said, ‘Okay, well, hey, I’ll leverage relationships,'” Beckwith recounted. “I called people that I know in the Senate and in the House … . We start talking, and already we’ve come up with a couple solutions … . That’s really, I think, how leadership works.”
Goodin contended that Senate lawmakers don’t want to “fight the social issues” he said Beckwith would bring.
“They know with Terry Goodin there, they won’t have to fight, scratch, and deal with all the crazy that will come along with the Braun-Beckwith ticket,” he said. “They know when they get Terry Goodin, they’re going to work on commonsense issues, and we’re going to be able to work together.”
He touted a “very strong record of working bipartisanly” and of forming “many friends on both sides of the aisle” in the Legislature.
Hudson pledged to work with lawmakers to draft property tax reform proposals, which she noted could involve changes to the caps enshrined in the state’s constitution.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on Facebook and X.
