Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith repeatedly addressed redistricting, immigration and education funding during a packed town hall session Tuesday night at the Marine Corps League.
President Donald Trump is urging Republican states to redistrict again to make it easier for Republicans keep their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate during the midterm elections next year, which led Texas Democrats to flee the state to Illinois on Aug. 3. They’ve mulled returning after the first special session ends, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he will keep calling special sessions until the redistricting is passed.
Vice President JD Vance met with Indiana Gov. Mike Braun and Republican state legislative leaders last week to urge them to call a special session to redraw the maps, which already favor Republicans 7-2.
Beckwith said drawing districts to favor one party over the other began in Democratic-leaning states.
“I’m telling you right now they started it, and we’re punching back,” he said. “It’s competition on a national level.
“We’ve got to compete with California” and other Democratic states, Beckwith said.
One of the participants pointed out that 40% of Hoosier voters favored Democrats in the last general election, so 40% of Indiana’s congressional delegation would be Democrats if districts were drawn fairly. “22% is a materially different from 40%,” a participant noted.
In Lake County, 56% of voters voted Democratic. How does redistricting help local voters, the participant asked.
If you don’t like it, tell the Indiana legislators who will make those decisions, Beckwith said.
“My position is that Republican principles are better for everybody,” he said.
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When a participant suggested fair rules for redistricting nationally, Beckwith responded, “I’m all ears.”
“I’m encouraging a commission on fair redistricting nationally,” he said. Until then, however, “we need to do it because the other states are doing it,” he said.
“Let’s make sure we’re not counting people unless they’re here as citizens,” he added.
The U.S. Census Bureau counts the entire U.S. population every ten years, according to census.gov, which is based on Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution and the 14th Amendment that mandates “counting the whole number of persons in each State.”
Beckwith was peppered with questions about immigration.
“We need to stop illegal crossings,” he said, thanking Trump for his immigration crackdown. Coming to the United States illegally is cutting in front of the line, he said, assured that everyone in the room would agree with him.
“Now we have people dragged out of their homes, schools, hospitals,” a participant noted. “They’re people in asylum from violence, poverty.”
“Everybody deserves due process because we believe in natural laws as well as constitutional laws,” Beckwith said. The Declaration of Independence refers to the God-given rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he noted.
Beckwith’s answer bore a marked contrast with comments he made earlier this month at a town hall meeting in Terre Haute, where he said ICE detainees don’t have the right to see a judge and compared the situation to the United States’ response after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in World War II, when U.S. citizens and residents of Japanese descent were forcibly placed in internment camps. Several immigration attorneys criticized his comments as false and inflammatory in multiple media outlets.
Then Beckwith said, “We have been invaded over the last 4.5 years” under the Biden administration. “We do not have the resources to have people wait in courts.”
If people picked up by ICE can’t produce an ID, they have to go back to their home country, Beckwith said.
Multiple news reports have said the Trump administration is deporting people to countries they didn’t come from, sometimes on a different continent, where the deported immigrants might not even know the language.
“I don’t want to be a nation of lawlessness,” he said.
Turning to state issues, one of the participants Tuesday said, “I feel as though the supermajority (in Indiana government) is basically a communist approach.”
“I’ve never been called a communist. That’s a new one,” Beckwith said.
“I’m not a huge fan of the supermajority in Indiana,” he said. “We have gotten weak on Republican principles.”
He said he favors more competition, he said, but took a shot at Democrats. “You’ve got to bring better ideas to the ballot box,” he said.
Pursuing social issues like LGBTQ+ rights is hurting Democrats, he said. “Stop doubling down on stupid social progressive ideals.”
“This is why you’re losing, Democrats, because you don’t even know the basics of biology.”
Beckwith has a history of attacking the LGBTQ+ community. In June, he made a Facebook post attacking Pride Month, titled “The Rainbow Beast Is Coming For Your Kids!,” in which he called libraries “drag indoctrination centers.” In August, he shared a post from an Indianapolis church where a speaker called for the execution of gay people, but said it was shared by his communications team and took it down amid an uproar.
Earlier in the town hall meeting, Beckwith said, “I think the Democrats do a much better job than the Republicans do” at communicating ideas.
Multiple questions dealt with education funding. “We have just gutted the public school system” with property tax refunds and vouchers for private schools, a participant said.
Out of Indiana’s $45 billion budget, $22 billion, or 47%, goes to education, Beckwith said. Even if a voucher is used to transfer a family’s children from public schools, the school district still gets 20% of the state funding, Beckwith said.
“Inner cities benefit and use the vouchers more than any other demographic,” he said.
“We’re spending a lot of money but in the wrong places,” he said. “I see natatoriums being built.”
“That nice, shiny object” doesn’t affect concerns like teacher pay, he said.
“I do feel we adequately fund them. It just doesn’t go to the right places,” Beckwith said.
Another participant noted that the Indiana University Board of Trustees no longer is elected. In June, Braun removed the three trustees voted on by IU alumni following last-minute language slipped into the state budget bill by legislators giving the governor full control of the board’s makeup.
“IU has been a woke indoctrination center,” Beckwith said. IU chose to “indoctrinate, not educate,” he said.
Beckwith was a guest lecturer on political science at IU, he said. “They were far below where they should have been.”
Other questions dealt with a legal challenge to gay marriage and the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
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“I support a civil union,” he said. “We did not create marriage. We have no business redefining it. God created marriage,” Beckwith said.
On abortion issues, Beckwith said he would support saving the mother’s life. “That’s not abortion. It’s triage,” he said.
“Sometimes the world throws really crappy situations at us, and we have to respond appropriately,” Beckwith said.
With rape, “I want there to be justice,” he said. “I will carve out one exception to my principles for that.”
A rapist should be tried for first degree murder if an abortion occurs following a rape, Beckwith said. “I want justice for people who do wicked things.”
On rising utility costs, Beckwith reiterated his support for electing members of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and said he supports getting rid of the sales tax on utility bills.
“I will take arrows from the Republican Party all day long on this issue,” he said.
“They just keep raising taxes,” he said of fellow Republicans. “I believe we dropped the ball there as Republicans.”
Beckwith praised Lake County Councilman Randy Niemeyer. “He is working hard to bring government efficiency back into local government” in Lake County. Beckwith’s proposal was voted down Tuesday by the County Council.
Since being elected lieutenant governor, Beckwith has visited Lake County more than others, he said.
“I think you have the potential to be one of the most awesome places in Indiana,”’ he said. He singled out Gary’s potential, including its airport.
“You’ve got good people up here. You have good work ethics,” Beckwith said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.