Briggs: Democrats stole Micah Beckwith's spotlight and put it on their own dumb infighting

Indiana Democrats had one job: Don't divert attention from Republicans' disastrous nomination of Micah Beckwith for lieutenant governor.

Great job, everyone.

Not only have Democrats wrested the spotlight from Beckwith — no small feat — but they also appear headed for the same stupid convention battle Republicans just went through. Except, on the Democratic side, the infighting is pointless. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor is not actually going to become lieutenant governor.

Let me back up. Gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick enraged progressives Thursday when she introduced conservative Democrat Terry Goodin as her preferred running mate. I say preferred because, just like Republicans, Democrats nominate their lieutenant governor candidate by a vote of delegates at the party's convention. That vote happens July 13.

McCormick is already contending with distrust among Democrats because she used to be a Republican. Now, she has chosen to partner with a former state representative who voted against same-sex marriage in 2011 and used to describe himself as "pro-life" and "pro-gun."

Goodin recanted the first two of those positions Thursday during a press conference. "We must do everything we can to restore the rights of women to make decisions about their own body," Goodin said. He also apologized for the same-sex marriage vote.

Progressive Democrats didn't wait to hear what Goodin had to say, though, before dismissing him out of hand and criticizing McCormick for alienating the base with her selection. As McCormick introduced Goodin, Democratic state Sen. J.D. Ford began floating his own candidacy for lieutenant governor, Adam Wren reported in Importantville. Ford is the first openly gay lawmaker in Indiana.

Progressive angst has been building for years as Democrats have nominated an endless series of moderate candidates atop their tickets, including unabashedly pro-gun, pro-police Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. for Senate in 2022; pro-coal John Gregg for governor in 2012 and 2016; and pro-life former Sen. Joe Donnelly, who lost his reelection bid in 2018.

Far-left Democrats insist without evidence that progressives are more electable than moderates in Republican-leaning Indiana even as they fail to produce like-minded candidates who can compete in statewide elections. Now, they act like McCormick owes them something.

But McCormick is trying to appeal to as many voters as possible and, in Indiana, the median voter looks a lot like Goodin. The base is the base because it reliably shows up to vote for Democrats. The problem for Democrats is that Republicans have a base, too, and it is much larger than theirs. Democrats need to win voters beyond its base — which means appealing to the right — if it ever hopes to win another statewide contest.

Briggs: Mike Braun deserves every minute of his new political hell

If Ford wanted to prove a point or take more control over the party's agenda, he could have run for governor himself. That would have been harder, though. So, instead, he's contemplating pulling a Beckwith at the convention to sabotage McCormick's campaign and virtue signal to an angry base that couldn't nominate one of its own.

This is political malpractice. The Indiana Democratic Party looks more like "Lord of the Flies" than an organization capable of governing in the foreseeable future.

The base doesn't seem to understand that running statewide as a Democrat sucks. Candidates take more than a year out of their lives to schlep across 92 counties with smiles on their faces only to suffer soul-crushing losses.

Yet, incredibly, Republicans' asinine nomination of Beckwith shook the GOP to the point that conservative super lawyer Jim Bopp warned Sen. Mike Braun that Beckwith "poses a serious threat to the Braun candidacy."

Never mind that. It took Democrats less than a week to refuse Republicans' gift and reveal they're more serious about threatening their own nominee than they are about taking down Braun.

McCormick is almost certainly not going to defeat Braun no matter who Democrats nominate for lieutenant governor. She is nonetheless carrying a thankless torch for a party that has struggled to recruit viable candidates. If Democrats reject Goodin and force McCormick into November with an arranged running mate, it will send another signal to prospective candidates that they should find something better to do.

Perhaps then, when the party is devoid of leaders with statewide campaign experience and fundraising capacity, progressives will finally get their chance to show how electable they are.

Contact James Briggs at 317-444-4732 or james.briggs@indystar.com. Follow him on X and Threads at @JamesEBriggs.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Democrats pose a bigger threat to Jennifer McCormick than Mike Braun