The Indiana Republican Party is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the state of Indiana. The chairman of the Indiana Republican State Committee is Randy Head.
It is currently the dominant party in the state, controlling all statewide executive offices, both of the state's U.S. Senate seats, seven of its nine U.S. House seats, and supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
History
Republicans have dominated Indiana politics for most of its history, although Democrats did occasionally do very well in some parts of the state government from the 1960s to the early 2000s. At the presidential level, the state is also reliably Republican; the state has voted Democratic only five times since 1892, all of which occurred amidst national Democratic landslides. In fact, no Republican has won the presidency without carrying Indiana since 1876, when Democrat Samuel Tilden very narrowly carried the state amidst an extremely close (and still contested) national election.
A backlash followed the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, leading to a defeat of Republicans in the 1862 midterm elections. Morton feared that the Democratic majority in the General Assembly would be sympathetic to the Confederacy, so he began to take steps to circumvent the General Assembly and mobilize Indiana in the war effort.[4] When Morton stepped beyond the scope of his constitutional powers by establishing a state arsenal, the Democratic legislature moved to switch command of the militia from the Governor to the General Assembly. Fearing that with control of the militia, the Democrats would attempt to secede from the Union, Morton helped Republican legislators to flee to Kentucky and prevent a quorum.[5] Unable to pass appropriations bills, the paralyzed government of Indiana teetered on bankruptcy until Morton once again stepped out of the scope of his powers and acquired millions of dollars in federal and private loans to keep the government running, support Indiana's role in the war effort, and circumvent the Democratic Assembly.[6]
For the remainder of the Civil War, Morton made efforts to keep Indiana secure by suppressing elements he saw as anti-union or sympathetic to the South. The searches, arrests, and even disruption of the Democratic State Convention in what would later be called the Battle of Pogue's Run earned Morton much criticism and was called a "dictator" and "underhanded mobster". As the war ended and the Republican Party received an overwhelming majority in the government, Morton's questionable conduct during the war was moot and he continued to serve a second term in the US Senate until 1877.[7]
The party's darkest stain was after World War I, following a rush of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe into the United States. By this period of time, the Indiana Republican Party, like the Republican Party elsewhere, had given up its former goal of African-American rights. Unlike the first Ku Klux Klan that rose in the South during the Reconstruction era to terrorize both white and black Republicans, the new Klan that started in Georgia in 1915 was a highly nativist organization. Staunchly anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, antisemitic, and prejudiced against African Americans, the new Klan spread into Indiana in the 1920s under Grand DragonD.C. Stephenson.[8] The second KKK was almost exclusively Republican in Midwestern states such as Indiana as well as in northern and western states such as Maine and Colorado, although the KKK remained exclusively Democratic in the South. Under Stephenson's leadership, the Klan flourished in Indiana and took over both the Governor's Office and much of the Republican Party in the General Assembly.[9] With over 250,000 white males (approximately forty-percent of Indiana's population) paying Klan dues in Indiana, Stephenson amassed a fortune estimated from two to five million dollars.[10] In 1922. the Klan-dominated General Assembly passed a Klan Day in the Indiana State Fair, but Republican Governor Warren T. McCray vetoed the bill, earning the ire of Stephenson and the Klan.
In the 1924 Republican primary elections in Indiana, almost all candidates nominated for statewide office were Klansmen. One African-American newspaper said, "the Ku Klux Klan has captured boot and breeches, the Republican party in Indiana and have [sic] turned what has been historically an organization of constitutional freedom into an agency for the promotion of religious and racial hate. Nobody now denies the Ku Klux Klan is the dominating power in Indiana Republican politics. In fact, the Republican party exists in Indiana today only in name. Its place has been usurped by the Klan purposes and leadership and issues." Most Indiana blacks in 1924 cast their first-ever ballot for the Democratic Party, which had passed a resolution denouncing the KKK in its platform, though without mentioning the Klan by name.[11] Blacks in other areas of the United States, in contrast, generally remained Republican until the 1930s. Despite the influx of blacks into the Democratic party, Klansmen won most of the Indiana legislature and most statewide offices in the November 1924 general elections. However, once in office, the Klan-controlled legislature passed little to no anti-black, anti-Jewish, or anti-Catholic legislation.
The peak of the Klan's power and influence was in the early 1920s, when the Klan had Governor McCray arrested, imprisoned, and thrown out of office on a charge of mail fraud. Republican Edward Jackson, a KKK member was elected in the 1924 election. Stephenson became infamous for his words "I am the law in Indiana."[12]
The Klan quickly fell apart under the revelation that Stephenson had abducted, raped, and murdered a young woman. More of a populist organization that believed in the Klan's image of defending the race and "Protestant Womanhood," the Klan's power and influence in both Indiana and its politics dissolved quickly. Governor Jackson refused to pardon his old ally Stephenson, so Stephenson retaliated from prison by revealing evidence that Jackson had received bribes from the Klan. Despite calls for his resignation for being associated with the Klan, Jackson's trial resulted in a hung jury.[8]
Platform
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2024)
The 2012 party platform contains the party's official stances on key issues, economic, political and social.[13]
The first section of the platform states that the liberties guaranteed to us in the Constitution and Bill of Rights must be protected from erosion by government. The platform then states a commitment to "protecting and defending our U.S. and Indiana Constitutions," "fiscal responsibility," "federalism," "strong family structures," "individual responsibility," "personal liberty and freedom," "free and fair elections" and "volunteerism."[14]
The Indiana GOP concurs with the current Indiana law that "childbirth is preferred, encouraged, and supported over abortion."
The party also believes that "strong families are the foundation of virtue and that such families bring forth citizens capable of self-government as well as properly motivated public servants so essential for a successful republic."[14]
It stands by the national Republican Party that "limited government truly is good government" and states that the proper role of government is to get out of the way of entrepreneurs and job creators.
The party also supports paying down debt, balancing budgets, and lowering taxes coupled with a simplified tax code.
The Indiana Republican Party supports the use of Hoosier resources, including expanded clean coal technology, as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
The platform states the belief of Indiana Republicans that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with free market solutions.
One amendment was approved and added at the 2012 State Convention; "The Indiana Republican Party shall seek transparency, accountability and fairness in all levels of government, including a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve."[14]
Current Indiana Republican officeholders
The Indiana Republican Party controls both U.S. Senate seats and seven of nine U.S. House seats. Republicans control all seven of the seven statewide constitutional offices. The party currently hold a majority in both the Indiana House of Representatives and the Indiana Senate.
Charles Zimmerman, "The Origin and Rise of the Republican Party in Indiana from 1854 to 1860," Indiana Magazine of History, Part 1: vol. 13, no. 3 (Sept. 1917), pp.211–269; Part 2: vol. 13, no. 4 (Dec. 1917), pp.349–412. Part 1 and Part 2 In JSTOR.
The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian extremist, white supremacist, far-right hate group. It was founded in the 19th century after the American Civil War by six officers of the Confederate Army. Various historians have characterized the Klan as America's first terrorist group. The group contains several organizations structured as a secret society, which have frequently resorted to terrorism, violence and acts of intimidation to impose their criteria and oppress their victims, most notably African Americans, Jews, and Catholics. There have been three distinct iterations with various other targets relative to time and place.
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 1924. Incumbent Republican President Calvin Coolidge won election to a full term. Coolidge was the second vice president, after Theodore Roosevelt, to ascend to the presidency and then win a full term.
Madge Augustine Oberholtzer was an American woman whose rape and murder played a critical role in the demise of the second incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan. In March 1925, while working for the state of Indiana on an adult literacy campaign, Oberholtzer was abducted by D. C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan. Holding her captive in his private train car, Stephenson raped and tortured her. Oberholtzer died from a combination of a staphylococcal infection from her injuries and kidney failure from mercury chloride poisoning, which she took while held captive in an attempt to commit suicide.
David Curtis "Steve" Stephenson was an American Ku Klux Klan leader, convicted rapist and murderer. In 1923 he was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and head of Klan recruiting for seven other states. Later that year, he led those groups to independence from the national KKK organization. Amassing wealth and political power in Indiana politics, he was one of the most prominent national Klan leaders. He had close relationships with numerous Indiana politicians, especially Governor Edward L. Jackson.
The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. The General Assembly meets annually at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.
Edward L. Jackson was an American attorney, judge and politician, elected the 32nd governor of the U.S. state of Indiana from January 12, 1925, to January 14, 1929. He had also been elected as Secretary of State of Indiana.
This is a partial list of notable historical figures in U.S. national politics who were members of the Ku Klux Klan before taking office. Membership of the Klan is secret. Political opponents sometimes allege that a person was a member of the Klan, or was supported at the polls by Klan members.
The 1924 Republican National Convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Public Auditorium, from June 10 to 12.
William David Upshaw served eight years in Congress (1919–1927), where he was such a strong proponent of the temperance movement that he became known as the "driest of the drys." In Congress, Upshaw was a staunch defender of the Ku Klux Klan, which was founded in his congressional district, and lost reelection because of major KKK scandals in the mid-1920s. In 1932, he ran for President of the United States on the Prohibition Party ticket, finishing the race in fifth place.
Daisy Douglas Barr was Imperial Empress (leader) of the Indiana Women's Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) in the early 1920s and an active member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). People were associated with both the KKK and the WCTU because the Ku Klux Klan was a very strong supporter and defender of temperance and National Prohibition. Professionally, she was a Quaker minister in two prominent churches, First Friends Church of New Castle, Indiana, and Friends Memorial Church in Muncie, Indiana. She served as the vice-chair of the Republican Committee in Indiana as well as president of the Indiana War Mother's organization. She was killed in a car wreck and her funeral was held in a Friends meeting.
Samuel Moffett Ralston was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as the 28th governor of the U.S. state of Indiana and a United States senator from Indiana.
Harry Emerson Rowbottom was an American businessman and Republican politician. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Indiana in 1924 and served three terms from 1925 to 1931. He was defeated for re-election in 1930 and subsequently convicted of accepting bribes, abruptly terminating his political career.
The Indiana Klan was the state of Indiana branch of the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society in the United States that organized in 1915 to promote ideas of racial superiority and affect public affairs on issues of Prohibition, education, political corruption, and morality. Like the rest of the KKK, it was strongly white supremacist against African Americans, Chinese Americans, and also Catholics and Jews, whose faiths were commonly associated with Irish, Italian, Balkan, and Slavic immigrants and their descendants. In Indiana, the Klan did not tend to practice overt violence but used intimidation in certain cases, whereas nationally the organization practiced illegal acts against minority ethnic and religious groups.
Although the Ku Klux Klan is most often associated with white supremacy, the revived Klan of the 1920s was also anti-Catholic. In U.S. states such as Maine, which had a very small black population but a burgeoning number of Acadian, French-Canadian and Irish immigrants, the Klan manifested primarily as a Protestant nativist movement directed against the Catholic minority as well as African-Americans. For a period in the mid-1920s, the Klan captured elements of the Maine Republican Party, even helping to elect a governor, Ralph Owen Brewster.
Julius Curtis Travis was an American lawyer, politician, sports journalist, businessman, and judge who served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 3, 1921 to January 3, 1933.
The 1924 United States presidential election in Ohio was held on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election. State voters chose twenty-four electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1924 United States presidential election in Kansas was held on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election. State voters chose ten electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1924 United States presidential election in Indiana took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose 15 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
The 1924 Indiana gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 1924 under the provisions of the Constitution of Indiana. It was the 31st gubernatorial election in the State of Indiana. Republican Edward L. Jackson defeated Democrat Carleton B. McCulloch. The election took place concurrently with the 1924 United States elections that saw Republicans hold the White House and increase their majorities in both houses of Congress.
Arthur Luther Gilliom was an American lawyer and politician who served as the twenty-fifth Indiana Attorney General from January 1, 1925 to January 1, 1929.
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