Mike Braun and the Will of Hoosiers

In 2024, Sen. Mike Braun asked for the governorship on a promise that Indiana's problems "must be solved right here at home," by Hoosiers "capable and ready to lead the way." By the America First measure, the forgotten Hoosier comes first, ahead of donors and distant wars. Nearly two years in, the record invites a fair question: has Braun kept that standard?

On immigration, the answer is largely yes. Braun's executive order directed state law enforcement to cooperate fully with ICE. Indiana signed 287(g) agreements for three state agencies and offered Camp Atterbury to federal authorities. By September, 217 troopers were certified to enforce immigration law, and the Miami Correctional Facility had room for 1,000 ICE detainees. "Indiana is not a safe haven for illegal immigration," the governor declared, and the administration has acted like it.

Compliance, though, cannot exceed the federal effort it serves. ICE's own budget documents put fiscal 2025 removals and returns at 442,637, with criminal records in about 38 percent of cases; the stated target is one million a year. That fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2024, so roughly its first four months fell under the Biden administration. The Migration Policy Institute found that only 31 percent of deportations from January 2025 through July 2026 began with an arrest inside the country. Indiana, meanwhile, spent $12.5 million housing detainees at Miami through March, and state reports showed less than $5.1 million collected from Washington over that span; a $4.7 million December payment arrived only in May. A state can lend troopers and beds, and only Washington can deliver removals.

On "Face the Nation" in February, the governor said the country "was built upon immigrants," described talk of "governors getting more involved in work permits and bringing people in coordinated," and called it "a good idea." On temporary protected status aimed at a workforce need, he said, "you have to respect it." The harder question for an America First Indiana follows: should the answer to a labor shortage be a state-brokered pipeline of foreign workers, or better wages and training for Hoosiers already here?

Governors declare no wars. Words still carry weight, however, and so does a record. At a March 2 press conference, the governor offered his verdict on the strikes:

"So far, so good — we'll see what happens — but I think it was long overdue, making a strong statement." — Mike Braun, Governor of Indiana

The sentiment matches the senator. In February 2020, the Senate passed Tim Kaine's resolution directing an end to hostilities against Iran absent authorization from Congress, 55 to 45. Indiana's Todd Young voted yes. Braun voted no. This June, the House passed its own Iran war powers resolution over the no vote of Rep. Mark Messmer, a record this column weighed on Oct. 30.

Hoosiers pay for that enthusiasm at the pump. AAA put Indiana regular gasoline at $3.81 on Nov. 2, against $2.91 a year earlier, and diesel at $6.76, against $3.82, with state gas taxes suspended. The suspension began with an April 8 emergency order, which declared that "the ongoing war with the leading state sponsor of terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Iran, has threatened the global supply of oil." It runs through Nov. 4, the day after Election Day, though the governor said on Oct. 29 that it may continue into early December. At that length, the lost revenue could reach $1.14 billion drawn from reserves. The relief treats a symptom of a war the governor cheered.

The last long wars left a ledger. Brown University's Costs of War project put the post-9/11 wars at roughly $8 trillion, including future veterans' care, with $2.3 trillion for Afghanistan and Pakistan and 7,040 American service members killed in the war zones. Cheers come at the start of such wars. The bills come for decades.

At home, the governor has repeatedly sided against Hoosier majorities. An October Bellwether poll found 69 percent of likely voters oppose new data centers in Indiana. The governor signed a law fast-tracking approvals for large power users and ordered coal-plant closure deals revisited, partly to power data centers. In February he joined Meta's announcement of a $10 billion data center campus in Lebanon. Those choices side with developers over the 69 percent. On redistricting, Braun called a special session for a mid-decade map and backed primary challengers against senators who voted no; 56 percent of likely voters now want redistricting to wait for the 2030 census. His budget cut local public health to $40 million for two years, down from $225 million, while 53 percent of voters wanted public health funding increased.

Not every unpopular decision is a betrayal. Edmund Burke told the electors of Bristol as much in 1774:

"Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion." — Edmund Burke, Member of Parliament for Bristol

Braun sometimes stands with the majority, as on Medicaid work requirements, which 62 percent of likely voters supported before he signed them into law. Bristol's voters kept the last word all the same. On the first day of the 1780 poll, Burke ran so poorly that he withdrew, a defeat historians trace to many causes, chief among them his neglect of local alliances. Judgment is owed to the people, and the people judge it in return. Braun's approval stands at 38 percent; 48 percent disapprove.

The deeper cost of the Iran war is measured in attention. Every dollar and news cycle spent on the Persian Gulf is lost to the fights at home that young conservatives care about: the border, the price of starting a family, and the faith and culture they intend to pass on. A war abroad crowds out the culture war at home. An America First foreign policy frees a movement to win the contest that matters most to the next generation.

Gallup found that 56 percent of Generation Z adults identify as independents, against 17 percent who call themselves Republicans. The Harvard Youth Poll this fall found just 34 percent of young Republicans say they will definitely vote, down from 46 percent in 2022, and only 31 percent consider themselves MAGA. This spring, a mere 18 percent of Americans under 30 said the Iran action serves the best interest of the American people. The same young Republicans are hardly soft: 67 percent support increased deportations, and 79 percent want school sports teams to match athletes' sex at birth. A generation that wants the border enforced, the culture defended and the wars ended is describing America First in plain terms.

Young voters will not swing a single Indiana election. In the Bellwether sample, Hoosiers 18 to 34 made up just 11 percent of likely voters, against 38 percent for those 65 and older. The case concerns a coalition built over cycles. Braun's term runs through January 2029, and the next governor's race arrives in November 2028, with legislative races on the same ballot. A party has to earn the votes it receives. The young conservatives now coming of age never assumed otherwise.

A governor who left Washington promising that Hoosiers would lead still has two legislative sessions to listen. Restraint abroad, an enforced border, an affordable household and a heard people would build the coalition a party needs and a state deserves. A free people chooses its servants, and by grace the choosing never ends. In 2028, the keys to Indiana will rest where they always have: in the hands of Hoosiers.