Max Engling Had 31 Days to Win a Statewide Nomination

I'm conservative. I'm eager to work. And if you've got a spot, I'll take it. My life motto is work hard, trust God. There's a lot of importance in that. Different views or ideas of what the best version might be.

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This seems like a wild thing to sign yourself up for. From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's [music] conversation. The mornings have some bite to them again. And if your fall looks anything like mine, it's a run of football Friday nights, fall festivals, trail rides, and outdoor work on Saturdays. When the season turns like this, there's a store worth knowing about, and it's [music] called Cowpokes Work and Western.

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You don't have to be western to shop the wide array of what's offered. Stop by in Anderson or Cloverdale or shop anytime at cowpokesonline. com. [music] Cow folks working your headquarters for the American lifestyle. Now let's get into today's episode. Today I'm joined by Max [music] Engling and he is the Republican nominee for Indiana Secretary of State.

Now, Max went from a behindthe-scenes Senate staffer to the Republican nominee for a statewide office in just 31 days. And he won the GOP convention up in Fort Wayne back in June with 53% of the delegate vote. He's a hooer who spent over a decade on Capitol Hill, including 5 years as an aid to the then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy before coming back home to Indiana. Today, we're going to talk about his journey from Uppui to Washington and back home to the Hooser State. what the Secretary of State's office actually does and what he wants to change about it and what to expect of this uh November general election, what's at stake. Max, welcome to Get In.

Thank you. It's great to be here, Nate. Happy to be on with you. Yes, sir. Oh my gosh. Wow.

Okay, so we we have to take this back because you mean you are a proud graduate of a university that looks a little bit different today. But I have Did you grow up in Indiana? So, I moved across the border from Illinois when I was a teenager. Yeah. With the family. And I tell you what, that was a great experience leaving Illinois and coming to the free state of Indiana.

Moved to Cicero, Indiana. Oh. And uh I'm convinced that my kids when they look at my degree at Uppui, they're like, "Sure, Dad. You have a degree. Your school doesn't even exist anymore." I'm like, "Yeah, no, I get it.

I get it." But yes. Yeah. Okay. So, did you go to Hamilton Heights? So, I was my my high school career was a little bit different than most folks.

So, I was homeschooled for one year. I went to one year of public school and then I did two years of dual crediting at a community college. So kind of the whole mix of uh growing up and and having an interesting high school experience. It was great for me, but Wow. Okay. Wait, what was the year of public where would you go to public school at?

So that was before we moved from Illinois was in Eureka. Actually, Eureka is known for being the home of uh Reagan's college. Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College. So I went to one year of high school there. Okay. So one year of high school there, then then moved to Indianapolis or Cicero and then two years of dual crediting and then moved here to Cicero.

Nice. Right after that. And then you headed downtown. Yes. And for you, what was appealing about Uppui and like what was the thing that drew you into going downtown to uh to be a Jaguar? So biggest thing is I'm one of eight kids.

So I'm the second oldest of eight kids. And part of what that means is that there's generally speaking not a lot of education money running around. So that means I was responsible for uh going to college and paying for that if if I wanted to go. And so I actually started at IvyTech. Uh I did two years there to get just my general education credits out of the way. I worked that whole time and then went downtown uh to finish my degree at UPUI.

I got a political science degree in psychology. Um because one, it's accessible. They do they have a great program at UPY when I was there. I got technically an IU degree side of that. Um but really good education and a great program for going after hours, too. Most of my schools at night.

I worked during the day and went to school at night. It was Okay. Wow. I I want to know one, what were you doing? What were you working on through school? And did you always want to get into politics?

Was that like the the trajectory? Yeah, I don't think it was always the trajectory. I you know, I grew up in a family that talked some politics, but it wasn't I would classify as a political family. It was more of a what's your worldview? How do you think through these things? But then I did uh 2 years of debating uh in a it was a homeschool debate league, but it was now now don't get me wrong, it's the NCFCA.

It's across the country. Great for me. Wait, I know. Debate league. Yes. Like, okay.

So, you're like, you step up to the plate and you're like debating someone else about a random topic. Correct. So, there's two ways. There's Lincoln Douglas where you can do it one-on-one. And then there's team policy, which is what I preferred. So, you study, you have a topic, and then you go affirmative or negative against another team on a topic for that whole year that you come up with a case on.

So, it was great for me. But, if you would have told me that I was going to enjoy it when my parents said that I would be joining that when I was 17, I would have told you this is I don't want to do this. This is not What was the topic? Like you're 17, you get your first you're you're in debate like what would a topic be? So usually there would be something uh that is I think one of them was energy independence for the United States. So the goal is to create a more energy independent United States, you could build a case however you wanted to come to that conclusion.

And so whether that was, you know, finding a new place to drill or whether that was renewable energy or whether that was uh cutting off purchases from another country, whatever you wanted to build as your case, you could argue the affirmative of that. And then on the negative side, you had to come in having no idea what anyone else was going to argue against you and then rebut that and say, "Here's why it's that's either um not a good plan and say we should stick with the status status quo or we don't want to do that, but here's an alternative plan." Wow. I enjoyed that very much. That's for like 17 year olds are doing that. That's nuts.

Like uh I can't imagine going have to like spend months building a case about something like So yours was uh energy independence when you did it. Did energy independence. That's wild. Now another one too that is also enjoyable is extempiraneous speaking. So you get uh you you do a bunch of research. You have files of all kinds.

You can't bring any you know outside computers in. you're doing all research out of your file box and you get a topic, you pick uh you take that topic, you have five or 30 minutes rather to research that topic from the information you brought in and then you give a fivem minute extemporaneous speech uh based on the notes that you put onto one card. So those were enjoyable too because you had to do prior research but then you also just had to be able to put it together. Did you have a general like vision of where the the topics would be from or could it be anything? Basically anything. Oh, dude.

That's literally like being a professional bullshitter. Like I could do that. Well, you like put me in a room and I'm like, "All right, you like you got 30 minutes to look back through your like photos or whatever there." Especially if it was Indiana. They're like, "Hey, we're going to give you a top. We're going to give you a county in Indiana.

You have 30 minutes and then you have to give a five minute speech." Dude, I did that actually this past weekend. I was uh on a golf trip and uh one of the one of the guys, he's like a a younger dude, just graduated from IU. Uh they asked him where he was from and he's like oh I'm from Louisville. And I was like oh are like are I saw him wearing a New Albany shirt a little bit ago and I was like wait are you actually from Louisville or are you from across on our side and he goes well I'm from New Alb but I just say and I went into this thing like you got to be proud New Albany the first public high school in Indiana. Go Bulldogs.

And I said, "Uh, and they helped out in the Underground Railroad." And they had like the signal tower and the whole night. And he at the end of it, everyone was like, "Why does he know more about you than your own hometown?" And it was great. And so like the the whole five minutes to uh put together an extemporaneous I love that word. Um, okay.

So you get into debate. Did you do that while you were in college as well? I did not. Uh, mainly because I didn't have time to do it. Um, but then so I worked that whole time. It was working at restaurants.

It was also I work in construction. uh the community north hospital um that uh there was an extension put onto it in that 20078 time frame. I was working for the general contractor there. I worked on that whole project and then would go to school at night. So whether that was downtown or I've appreciated uh other campuses of IU like IU Cooko. I would drive up there and take some classes as well just to make sure I could fit everything in that I needed for that uh that semester.

I think one semester it was while I was working construction. I was putting in about probably right between 60 and 70 hours a week and then I took 15 credit hours at at night uh both semesters and I don't recommend that to anybody. It was terrible. Um but it's what you have to do when you're trying to get your education and pay for it. Yeah, I feel like that is a um it's maybe not the traditional college experience, but I mean there's good to take out of everything, right? It's like you go through that and yeah, you're paying for your college experience and you're getting to see different parts and work in different industries.

As you went through college, where did the stars start start to align that politics was going to be the right path for you? Yeah. So, part of it was I was politically involved growing up too where my, you know, my parents or I would volunteer with campaigns and then here in Indiana, uh, did a lot of work around campaigns. I was at the Marian County Republican Central Committee while I was in in college as well. Um, as an intern, volunteered with a handful of of candidates, including Mitch Daniels when he was running and really enjoyed the how do you get a a good candidate across the finish line perspective of it, like press really hard and get this person across the finish line, but then also got to see, okay, there's a lot of policy in here once you're transitioning off of campaigns and into now elected office. you the the person is successful, the candidate is successful.

Now what and how do you build out that good policy? And so did a lot of that during college. Uh I was a vice president of the college Republicans while I was at UPY as well and really felt that there was a way to make a meaningful difference on the policy side, especially during those four years here uh in Indiana. That was good for me. Yeah. Okay.

So you end up graduating from Uppui. You have the IU what was the degrees in political science. Yep. Okay. And psychology. and psychology of course.

So he's he's reading my mind right now. I'm just kidding. Uh then where do you get your first So now it's like we get a degree and you know you don't have to maybe you said you're working in restaurants, working construction, you know, putting yourself through college. Now it's I got a four-year degree in in political science psychology. What's the first uh postgrad job? Yeah.

So one I would say while the political science degree has been good for me, the theory was helpful. I probably if I did it again, I'd get something like a business degree or an economics degree just to have a different perspective on it because when you get into politics, you learn basically what you need to know in the first 45 minutes of doing on the job work, right? Pass the theory that you learned in college. But when I graduated, I worked for a small business on the north side of Indianapolis. It was not a political job. Uh the gentleman that owned that recruited me to be his uh office manager.

It was a HVAC company. So not in the field that I was, you know, thinking I would graduate and move into. Um but great for me worked there for um a while. Um I think almost two years. And during that time I was still very politically active. And one of the things that happened in that time period from 2010 to 2011 is when the house in Washington DC flipped and Republicans took control of the house.

And so when that happened and when I saw somewhere around 94 new freshman members going out to Washington, which I'm pretty sure there was a record at the time. Don't quote me on the exact number. Yeah. Yeah. Um we don't do public math on the show. That's right.

Perfect. I appreciate that. And I have a political science degree. So and so when that happened and I saw folks that were on the conservative side of the spectrum like myself going to Washington to serve and then I I thought this is a way that I can really lean in and serve both the country and the state to get good policy across the finish line. I told my boss at the time who wasn't overly political. He's like, "You know how I'm wired.

I've been involved in this for a long time. I have to go try and serve if I can." And so flew out the next day. Didn't know anybody in Washington. Wait, what? Yes.

You just get on a plane. You don't have a place to stay or like anything? No, it was a it was a going to be a one-day in-n-out talk with as many people as I could and hand out my resume that I printed out the day before to say, "Let me try and be involved." So, so it's not like I'm I'm flying out there to move there completely. You're flying out there to start shake hands, you know, put out the resume, see if there's any feelers. Exactly.

Okay. Wait, where did this idea come from? I love crazy ideas, by the way. Yeah. I mean, a lot of it was because I had been involved, but it was also because I felt very clearly that I could make a difference in a role like this on the policy side, that I could go work and serve uh to help make a difference. And I didn't know the best way to do that.

I had How old are you? You're 24. 24. So you buy yourself a ticket out to DC. Like where do you like take me through day? I need itinerary.

It's like what are we taking the first flight out? It was early. Yep. There was an early flight from uh Indianapolis to DCA in in Washington. Where do we even like start? You just like Uber to Capitol Hill and say, "All right, let's start slinging resumes."

So, honestly, I don't think that I could have even Ubered at that time. I'm pretty sure that I just took the metro across and um Nice. But I had So, I had one contact, a friend of my wife's that worked in DC. So, I had one meeting that I was going out to do. And the rest of the time it was, okay, I'm going to go just any freshman members that I respected, that I thought were going to do great work, committees that I wanted to work for, I would go just in the front door, hand my resume to them and and see what would happen. And do they all have offices out there?

So, it's like you're not just like roaming a government building. You're like going to a specific freshman member of Congress's office and like knocking on the door and say, "Hey, could you give this to whoever?" Yeah. It's it's sort of like roaming a government building. Um they're all individual offices in there and committees as well. Um but they do a member of Congress sort of operates like their own small business.

They get a budget. They get an office on Capitol Hill, but then with that budget, they can hire their staffs, you know, communicate with their constituents, rent a district office, travel back and forth. All of that comes out of the same budget, but then they'll operate that that one office in in DC. Okay. So, when So, then there's is it like like a I don't want to say co-working space, but it's like a bunch of different offices lined up by each other or is it like random parts throughout DC? I literally have no idea about this.

This is interesting. So, if the capital building's here Yeah. And then on the House side, which is the south side, there's three buildings. And almost all of the committee and member offices are in those three buildings. Same thing is true on the Senate side. So you go in there with a stack of I don't know 20 30s and you're like just popping in like, hey, what what was like what's the pitch?

What do you even say? You're a 24y old kid from Indianapolis. Hey, it was uh I'm conservative. I'm eager to work. And if you've got a spot that you know I can make a difference for you, whether that's an intern or the entry level position is a staff assistant position. um I'll take it.

And um and a lot of times when freshman offices are spinning up, they're looking to build out their staff to say, you know, how do I bring in the right people at this time? That's when they're hiring. And so there was a little bit of an advantage being there at that time rather than coming in midterm or something like that. Um but still out of all of it, I got one call back and uh that ended up being an internship with the committee on house administration and the committee on house administration. So, you know, my life motto is work hard, trust God. And I think there's there's a lot of importance in that.

And one way of trusting God was that this committee that I ended up working for, got an internship and then turned it into a full-time position, ended up working for them for 8 years, is the committee on house administration, it's the chief elections committee in the US House. So, constitutionally, both the House and the Senate oversee their own elections. So, if there is they, you know, you survey all of the races across the country. you determine, you know, do you think one of them is going to be close? Would there potentially be a recount in one? Uh would there be a contested election in one of those races?

And then the job of the committee, part of their job is to recruit, train, and deploy staff to go watch, recount, uh listen into what's happening in these elections and then adjudicate them if necessary. So, it's not something where I said, "Hey, I I want to go I have to go work for the chief elections committee." But it is something where I was able to get great experience um on the exact topic that is relevant to the Secretary of State's race because I truly believe in work hard and trust God and he wanted me to be at that committee at that time. It was an awesome experience. Wow. Okay.

Yeah. So you're you're just, you know, hitting the road. You give out your resume. You get one call back. You get an internship for a comm. So like who is who's the person that calls you?

Like is it a staffer of like whoever's the head of that committee? Yeah. So there's a a chairman and a ranking member of every committee. So the whoever is in the majority at that time. So the the chairman of the committee at the time was Dan Lungren and he was a Republican member. So his from where?

He was from California. Sac Sacramento, California. That's wild. Good for him. All right. That seat is no longer in Republican hands.

You don't say. I never would have guessed that one. Okay. Wait. That's wild. So you're out there.

you they call you back then how how long after like you'd be back in Indie for how long before you got a call? I think I got a call back um probably a little over a week later. Okay. And then you're like cool I'm in. Let's go. When do we start?

Yeah. Do you get like housing or how like internships don't pay any money? No. It and that's it's part of the challenge. So when I when I drove out there um I drove and moved fully on an internship. So there is risk in that too, right?

You know, you don't even know if the internship's going to last or turn into a job or what else is going to happen. But um I felt very strongly about just putting your head down and working hard and seeing where it would go. And so found a place to live out there. It was pretty far out. I would take the train back in and out of the city. It was on the Virginia side.

Um but then I also worked at night after I would get off the hill. So, for about the first 3 and 1/2 years or so that I was in Washington, I would work during the day, handle my responsibilities, get off, go straight to a restaurant downtown, work from probably 6:00 until midnight, take the last train out in most cases, go home, get ready for the next day, come back in, do the whole thing again. I'd probably do that five or six nights a week because it doesn't pay hardly anything. It truly is, you know, public service. And um and I knew that if I wanted to make it work, then you really had to you had to mean it. Why?

Like this is my biggest question to a lot of politicians. Is it's good in theory? Like I think in theory, everyone wants to make a place better. You know, everybody I would hope all productive members of society, any side, any party, any person is like, you know what, I want to make the world a better place. But then you get into it and it's like that it's working 12 hour days and then you say something and half the people on the internet love you and half the people on the internet hate you and everyone's yelling at everybody like why this seems like a like a wild thing to sign yourself up for. Yeah, it is.

But it really is. I felt very clearly that what I was doing was meaningful that I was making a difference that you could um really lean into something and it was fulfilling because you could do something with real impact. Yeah. Okay. So like tell me yeah what were you guys doing? You talked about overseeing elections like what was the committee again?

The committee on house administration. The committee on house administration. Okay. And so one of the things you know depending on what time of the year it is in the ele or which time of the cycle it is um it's not always election season right. And so you have other responsibilities too. U one of those things that was given to me was to run an internship program for students with intellectual disabilities.

And so it was with George Mason University. they would um work with the committee um on house administration and I was the lead for the program. I would recruit offices across the hill, member offices or committee offices to sign up to have an intern come in from this program that helped uh students with intellectual disabilities. And it was an awesome program because you would take these kids, these students, they'd go into an office, they'd work hard and really [clears throat] so certainly it was good for the student into like a political office like so they're okay. That's amazing. Yeah.

Very cool. And like while certainly it was good for the student, it was very obvious that this was a program that helped the offices, the staff immensely because it puts you into a situation where, you know, it's challenging. You have to work with somebody that um may not know the ropes on any of these things, but they're awesome people. They want to work hard and it gives really cool opportunities. So when you're saying [clears throat] things like, you know, how is this fulfilling or what parts of it are fulfilling? Those kind of things to me really made a difference.

Yeah. Well, I think that's one of the biggest challenges a lot of people have with politicians just in general is there's a large disconnect from the constituents, right? And it's like, you know, you're in policy and you're in and like some of the things you read or like the stories or the it's like, dude, that doesn't even make any sense to me. Like a normal person who has a college degree, right? And it's like if you can't make whatever you're pushing for make sense to me, like how is it going to make sense to the masses of the not saying that I'm like the filter of, you know, stuff that's understandable, but it's like sometimes I I I just get maybe not frustrated is the right word, but I just kind of get out on politics because it just seems like everything's over my head and I'm like, ah, whatever. Like I don't even know what to do, what to think about that.

Well, the the [clears throat] experience that you're getting with this, right, this podcast going around the whole state, I think that is the direct experience that is particularly helpful that politicians should be doing more of to say, "Let me get into the weeds of all of my community and figure out where the people are different, where they're the same, what values they share, what things are um where folks opposed to each other. How can we really lean in to gain that understanding?" And you know, the last three years of my life, more than three years, has been traveling the state of Indiana, talking with Hoosiers to figure out what's going really well, what things need to go differently or what can we change, and then really how do we get government out of your life. So, I appreciate what you're bringing to the table of really getting into the weeds with real people here in Indiana. I say anyone that has a role politics or business-wise that covers the entire state.

Like if your territory is Indiana, you really can't oversee that from an ivory tower in Indianapolis. Like that's my big thing. I'm from a small town in northern Indiana. Then I went out to Green Castle at Depal. And so I went from 1500 people to 12,000 people to now I live in Indianapolis. I have since 2019.

And the last year or so, I've been on this like quest to visit 1,000 towns in Indiana and I'm at like 300 and something now. It silly idea. A thousand so many like it is. But I'll just be like cruising down 31 like well I got to hit some downs today. So I just take a sharp left turn and all of a sudden I've hit every unincorporated community in Typton County. Like I found I found places along the way there that no one I know has ever talked about.

And it's interesting and you like I usually go and have a tenderloin and a beer and sit down at a dive bar somewhere or uh I was I was in Tipton I went to Jim Dandies. Oh yeah, one of the final I think it's there used to be a lot of them and now there's only one left but it's just like you sit there and you talk to people and you just observe and you like ask more questions and then you talk about yourself and it's really really interesting and there's almost like um there I mean there for sure is subcultures within the state of Indiana that not a lot of people understand like everyone is hooer which is amazing I love it cuz there's there's like um some like concrete pillars some concrete foundational blocks that make people hooers no matter where you live at, big city, small town, like everyone has a few of those. And then there's like the the like subcultures of people in like Lake Border, half of Leaport County, like the region.

Love it. I spent my first time up there for the Whiting Perogi Fest. Amazing. Then you go down to the fall festival in Evansville and it's like the river city. Like there's a whole different vibe down there and it's awesome. Then I would go over to like the Louisville, like Jeffersonville one.

I don't know. I always rave about this. The new little district of Jeffersonville, like that downtown area by the pedestrian bridge. Amazing. Like it it's really cool. But it's like the people are the same but slightly different in what they care about and how they think and what they do for work and what the big employers are.

And it's I would say sorry that's a really long-winded way to say this but if you are whether you're a politician whether you're just a territory sales manager and your territory is Indiana just get in the car on like a Sunday and just drive to a new spot and sit down at a bar sit down at a restaurant sit down at a coffee shop and just like ask a few questions to people and you'll like start to see what different small regions within Indiana care about. Okay, tangent over. I completely agree with that and I think getting out of your comfort zone a little bit to just ask somebody those questions is key to that. Folks don't mind if you ask them a question. They're intrigued that you care about them and they want to have that conversation. You're going to find out pretty quickly that you have a lot in common with them and and especially as Hoosiers together that we have a lot in common.

It's pretty awesome experience. But you do have to get out of your comfort zone a little bit to go do that. Yeah. And it's like some people go and they think that oh if I just go to a small town Indiana people will be coming out of the woodwork saying like asking you a million and it's like they will if you kind of like get the ball rolling like if you just keep your head down in your in your phone the entire time like no one's going to talk to you and it'll be like like you'll be like oh small town Indiana no one's no one talked to me like whatever. But if you just ask like I found it's like one or two questions you just kind of keep your eyes up and you show that you're like interested in conversing with someone. there's an old-timer at a coffee shop that would love to bend your ear for a little bit and it's awesome.

Like I've had so much fun and even, you know, like as we have done this more, people start to say, "Oh, you're like the Indiana small town guy, like blah blah blah blah." Like, but the some of the best ones come like they have no idea that it's like a team that makes video. I'm just sitting there and someone just like starts talking and they have no idea that I like make videos or travel the state. They're just like telling me about their home and I'm like, "That is cool." Likew whether it's their home or their basketball team or whatever it is. Like if you love it, I love it.

Like I'm here for you. So it's it's really interesting what like from you. So what were you doing before this campaign that was taking you across the state of Indiana? And actually I'm going to back up even more. How did you get back to Indiana from Washington? And what made that the right decision?

Yeah. So I'll finish the the time in Washington. So one it was with the chief elections committee. Then I worked for leadership where I was the director of member services for the speaker leader and then speaker. And a lot of that role was uh working with the membership of the house to determine what do they have as a priority, what do their districts have as a priority and how do you put that whole puzzle together when you're getting legislation across uh the finish line on on the house floor. So really good experience on building those coalitions around uh around good policy.

And then, you know, part of the reason we came home, the biggest part for me is that one, most of my family's here. My wife's soul family is here. We wanted to we appreciated the time serving in Washington, but Indiana is our home and we wanted to be back home and u we have four kids and raising them kind of inside of the the bubble of of DC is a challenge. And uh and so we wanted to get back um here to Indiana. We did that and um that was in uh kind of early to mid 23. And then really the idea was that we were looking around the state of Indiana um uh talking with so many folks especially around the middle part talking with a lot of our business and elected leaders um to determine if that if there was an opportunity to potentially do something politically here.

And uh one of the things that we felt I felt very clearly was that running in the fifth congressional district as you mentioned in the opener uh was the right next move that there was support for that. Folks wanted somebody uh to your point that just as a you know common sense person to to to run in that race and the congresswoman had announced that she was retiring. So it was an open seat and that made a lot of sense for our family and [snorts] um you know the way that it worked out eventually was uh I was not successful in that. Um, part of it was the the congresswoman there uh got back into the race. I ended up coming in third place out of nine folks in that uh particular race and you know she and I were we've have a great relationship. You know I I endorsed her after that because it was important to make sure that we won that seat and then she has also endorsed me in this race.

Um, but it allowed me the opportunity to travel the fifth congressional district and talk with so many folks to hear their concerns. And then I ended up working for Beck's hybrids right after that, the corn and soybean company in Atlanta, Indiana. Go check out our episode we did on that one. I I wasn't with Sunny. I would love I know he just put out a book and I'm really excited to read it. Uh, if any if we could sit down if anyone sits down with Sunny Beck and gets the whole story that would be incredible.

like he just seems and what he's built and and the whole team over there and the family has built is incredible. Yeah. I think to this day he still checks his crops on his dirt bike. Like that guy is awesome. He's got a he's wild. He's not young.

I won't say the other word, but he's not young. So the fact that he's can still ride a dirt bike is crazy. Yeah. He he runs an awesome operation over there. Worked for them. Um and that took me around the state as well.

And a big part of that was creating an agriculture education um program for them, working both with federal partners and then also folks at the state house to better understand, you know, the farm economy and what is good a policy uh for our our stakeholders at the at the state house. And then ended up working for US Senator Jim Banks as uh as his senior adviser and a policy uh liaison as well. So traveled the state on his behalf as well and had a great opportunity to really lean in with a lot of Hoosiers here in Indiana. Well, I had to look up where the fifth congressional district. So, you're talking what? This is an interesting district because probably a lot of opinions that come from the south part of that, right?

When you talk about is Carmel part of that, too. So, like Fischers, Carmel, Noblesville, and then you also include Anderson, Muny, Mary, and Cooko. Yep. Like that is a diverse um spattering of Indiana. Like you're going to get a lot of different opinions and people that care about different things through all those places. like you know what you care about in Midtown Carmel is probably not quite the same about what you care about in downtown Anderson.

Yeah. And and even if you look past even just the cities that you mentioned then the rest of it is a you know very very um growerheavy farmheavy commodity crops um you know some hogs a lot of a in there as well. And so there are a lot of differing opinions there. And it is a it's a very unique district. And you're right lots of different opinions depending on where you're at. What's like the northeast?

What's like what's this stretch right here? What's where does it stop? Oh, yeah. So, it's all of Delaware County. Oh, okay. So, it's it's basically six clean counties right now.

Um it goes Hamilton, Typton, Howard County, and then across the top Grant, Madison, and Delaware County. I was just up near uh is Albany. I think Alb might be one of the towns at the top of Delaware County over there. It might Does it go all the way up to Red Key or No, I I think Red Key is just outside Randolph County. Yeah, somewhere in there. Yeah.

So, it stops kind of up there. I was just here. They have like a little ice cream joint in there that's pretty cool that people rave about. Um and I was uh on on the way back up from uh Burn. So, um yeah, speaking of ice cream joints, um and you probably know this one well, but if you're going up towards um Elcart County, you go to the Chief. Oh, yeah.

Is that Go? Yes, in Goan. Yeah, that was awesome. and we just took the kids there. People rave about the Chief. It was really good.

They've they like make their own ice cream there, I'm pretty sure. And they've done it for like a lot a lot of years. So, right, like whether you're from Goan or Northridge or Napony or wherever. I'm originally from up near that way. Probably like oh 25 35 minutes from Goan, um all my like Northwood friends rave about the Chief. So, it's like the go-to spot.

Well, we walked in the Elcart County 4H fair parade which is a long parade. It was a great parade. Um, but then afterward the kids were with me too and my wife and we went to the chief afterward and got a reward for walking in the parade and um I will say you do not need two scoops. You won't finish it in my opinion. Maybe if you really love ice cream, maybe. But they they give you a generous portion and it is delicious.

One any local spot that just has a lot of lore is like what I'm all here for. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends at Bloom Rank. If you're in Indiana and own a Shopify store or a home services business and you're [music] annoyed with chat GBT and Google's AI recommending your competitors over you, you need to give them a call. We trust them. Neighbors trust them and we think you should, too. For Get Indiana listeners, they're [music] offering a completely free website rebuild with your first month working with them.

Find out if you qualify by reaching out at bloomrank. com/get-in. Now, let's get back to the show. [music] So you're traveling the state for one for Beex, but then also for your role after that. Y and like what what is like the I think this is a part that people might not understand either is like someone who works in politics like what does that role look like like okay you are uh what is it was that it liazison you instate agricultural leazison then also senior adviser also it's a regional director for for the midstate. So what does that look like?

If you wake up on a Monday morning, what are the things you're going out because you need to like know what people are thinking, what they care about, all that stuff. How do you go out and collect that information? Yeah. So part of the way that I would structure it is, you know, one, you're meeting with folks in the party. Um, so that's a part of it. So there's some Republican elected leaders that you're talking to, some, you know, elected leaders that are Democrats as well.

Um, but when it comes to party functions, uh, those are, you know, pretty much all Republicans. But then you go meet with your business leaders, you meet with your healthcare leaders, your education leaders, grassroots folks, regular constituents around the whole area. And the way that I would structure it was certainly there's some meetings that are on the board, you know, right away, whether that's party or whether that's commissioner meetings or whether that's uh talking with uh county council members at their meetings. Um but it's also when you look at the committees that your boss is on. So what Senator Banks, the committees that he's on, it includes like the help committee. So, health, education, labor, and pensions.

And so, I would work uh directly to to set up meetings with folks in the healthc care space. Um folks that were uh working on education as well. And and a lot of uh let the committees um essentially guide the process for how you set up your meetings. And so, he was also on armed services. So, would do a lot of meetings uh with folks that were in either the military or uh military contracting, defense folks that that wanted to work with the armed services committee. So a lot of times that builds it out, but then a big part of it is folks want the senator or the senator's representatives to be at their events and to hear what they're doing.

And so there's a lot of incoming invitations as well, especially around the middle of the state here where there's there's so much happening as on the business side in in some of this area. So it was a mix of all of that, but it was just awesome to be able to talk with folks across a really broad uh set of issues. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about how you ended up as the nominee for Republican for for Secretary of State and what Secretary of State means. Uh, one, take me through what were you doing cuz the whole thing happens pretty quickly, right?

Where one, it's not something that's on the ballot like in the primary people didn't have an election where you would nominate someone for Secretary of State, right? is like a there's like delegates that come to a place and you have a whole thing and then a candidate is produced. That's right. Yeah. It's a convention process. So, uh delegates run in the primary and then those delegates are elected across the whole state.

Wait. Okay. I did not know that. So, delegates run in the primary. So, like there'll be names on a ballot that are going to be your delegates who then go to the convention on behalf of of the I say the normal us like common folk, right? Like that's how that happens.

Yeah. So in the primary you uh depending on where you live in the county, there's different regions. You send X number, usually it's like five or a delegate region. You send those folks on your behalf to wherever the convention is being held. And their job is to represent you at the convention and select the best candidate that's put forward. And that's both on the Republican and the Democratic side.

They both do it the same way for these statewide offices. Okay. And so how many statewide offices are there? So there's five. Well, so that the delegates choose there's five. So this year there was the comproller which is Elise Nala.

There was the uh treasurer Daniel Elliot, myself running for the secretary of state position and then in the next cycle it'll be the attorney general who's currently Todd Rakita and then lieutenant governor is Michael Beckwith. So those five are selected at convention. Okay, this is news to me. So the governor and the lieutenant governor aren't like a tandem pair. It's not like running mates. So the the governor runs in a primary.

Yeah. Yeah. And then the lieutenant governor is selected by the convention and then they join a ticket to run together in the general election. Ah yeah. Huh. Yep.

Yep. It's a unique process. There's not a lot of states that do it that way. But it gives, you know, uh um authority or opportunity to voters across the state um on the governor side and then also gives that responsibility to delegates to then choose kind of what does that pairing look like? Cuz like on the presidential side, a president gets to choose who their running mate would be. Is it after the primary?

Yeah. I mean, they could, I think, do it whenever they wanted, but generally speaking, they you win the primary, you're going to go to the big election in November, and you're like, "Oh, yeah. By the way, I'm running with so and so. Yep. Wow. Yeah.

But this way, it is a delegate. A delegation they elect who your running mate is going to be. Yep. That's right. That's right. That would suck if you like got someone who was like you just didn't get along with.

Well, and it's not always contested. Sometimes it's the the person one person gets put up, they you know, everybody says yes, let's go forward. And sometimes it is contested. Um but I think the the interesting part is it's 1,800 delegates roughly um that go there altogether. And so when I was sprinting through this process in the 31 days um my job was to connect directly with all 1800 of these folks. And so and the delegates are on both sides, Republican and Democrat.

They're the essentially the heartbeat of the party. They're very invested. They know what's happening. They're paying attention to all of the politics of it. They understand the leadership structure. And so you can have good conversations uh getting into the weeds on things about how you would want to move forward on a certain policy or issue.

Um what does the upcoming election look like? And so I either called directly or met with or hosted meetings with essentially every delegate across the state in those in those 31. So how do you end up getting put up uh as one of the nominees and how many were there? So, there are four of us and for about a month prior to the convention, uh, delegates were coming to me directly asking if I would consider running for Secretary of State and or I should say a month prior to the deadline. So, two months before the convention and and I told folks for quite a while that I was not considering it um and that I was rebuffing that those requests. And part of it was, you know, what's the the next best step for me?

But part of it was I worked for Senator Banks now. I'm on leave now, but um worked for him and there was an endorsement of another candidate that he had made. And so it didn't make as much sense politically to run ahead of uh what the senator was doing when I was employed by him um in this particular race. And so there were a few things that happened towards the end of that month that made it uh really challenging for the current Secretary of State. And that's when, you know, my wife and I had more of a conversation together and said, I think there is an opportunity here to run, to use my unique background for this role, to run well, to push through, win, and not just for the sake of winning, but for the sake of, you know, putting good policy into place. And so talked with uh the senator after we came to that conclusion, talked with the other delegates that were asking me to run and said, I think we're going to go ahead and jump in here.

And at that point, that's when both um Senator Banks and Attorney General Todd Rakita then uh rescended their endorsements, put them behind me, and said, "All right, let's go and let's run hard through the convention." Wow. Yeah. Very quick turnaround. Like, and what's like the process? This is going to sound really silly, but like you have a conversation with your wife.

You're like, "Cool, let's do this." Like, now what? Like, how do you like officially say, "I would like to be in consideration." Yeah. So biggest thing, one, conversation with the wife. Um, and two, praying about it.

Really feeling like, is this where we should go as a family? It does take a big toll on your family as you're running. I don't I don't see a whole lot of them right now and that can be challenging. that and just like again I I feel like it just is politics today and that's like kind of unfortunate but like I don't know when your when your family has to see like any sort of advertisement whether it's pro you or against you it's like well [ __ ] dude like I'm not trying to get like smacktalked in front of like the entire state of Indiana in front of my friends and family like that kind of sucks. [laughter] Yeah that and that's that is part of it unfortunately. Um, now I've been around this world for long enough to know what to expect.

It's certainly different when you're the candidate, right? And they're talking about you directly. Um, but there's a big part of it that's just you got to let that roll off your back. That's that's part of it. Now, we've had death threats, too. And that's a a unique problem that should never happen in any circumstances.

Um, but I think when folks don't like you and disagree with you, that's okay. That's healthy. But also, let's let's make it civil. I saw one that was so bad. It was a few years back and like a candidate was on a call and like stuttered and they just like blasted the stutter and I'm like dude we all stutter. Like I speak for basically a living and I stutter.

Like what are we doing here? And so that's like just a piece that you know people do it and you you know there's still like you know money spent on political advertising all that stuff but it also just makes it feel gross you know where it's like and it's like a definitely a consideration where if you're not used to being in the spotlight and people talking [ __ ] about you like that is what it is you know I think for me it's like we'll put out pro like I put out pro Indiana content like there's there is nothing for the most part very like controversial about like me traveling the White River on a canoe for 84 miles. You like that's pretty down the center and people will still find something to complain at me about and it's just like whatever, you know. But I think that would be discouraging or like just something a big hurdle. Um it's not your first election but for someone like you know upstart that wants to get involved in politics and they're like oh wait you know I I've wanted to do this but as soon as I put my name in the hat people are going to come after me and call me a [ __ ] that have never even met me and it's like what are we doing?

Yeah, I had somebody ask me on the trail if I thought things like that discouraged future candidates from running. And the answer is 100% yes. I mean, when you're looking at what you would potentially go through as a candidate, uh, and and I'm not complaining about it. I know what we signed up for, but I think it does discourage folks that maybe just want to make a difference. They want to lean in on policy or something, but they don't want to go necessarily through that process because of what it has become across a lot of politics. And it's like I I chose to go the non-political route but still wanted to make an impact in Indiana.

And it's like all roads lead to at some point if you start to like you know get any sort of momentum people are going to talk smack about you. So just bite the bullet early on and just go for it. Uh cuz that is a piece that I think and I want to talk a little bit about that is young people do not seem interested for the most part in politics. At least I'm 29. I don't sit around with my friends and talk politics like and I would say you know a lot of us are informed about the state of Indiana. We're informed about business and you know that kind of thing in that community but politics just seems like something that young people are not excited about.

Whereas 20, 30, 50 years ago it was like the thing. What is your take on that? You've been around it for a long time. Like are young people not interested? Are they disinterested? What's making them disinterested?

young people's perspective on politics. Yeah. So, I think there's there's a couple things. One, I have seen an uptick in especially folks that are uh young people that are in college now in the the kind of young professional group, maybe up to around 25 or so, where they're looking more at politics and saying, um, how do we do this from kind of a, you know, conservative perspective, but also, you know, my highest compliment for somebody in politics is just, are you normal? Like, can you have a conversation with someone? can you listen to a bunch of viewpoints?

Can you turn that into good policy on the other side? Um, and I think there's a lot of young people that are looking for that. Um, someone that they can relate to, especially in politics, and that's happening in that kind of youngest demographic of voter, but I do think that there's a kind of from maybe 25 to uh 39 or so, where you probably got turned off by a lot of things that were happening in politics and and I can appreciate that too. And I don't think it has to become your life. like I don't I think politics doesn't need to dominate who you are. It should be something that you're informed on to your point.

Um but not something that you have to think about all the time, but it is important to have those conversations and I've seen that happening with the kind of the youngest voting block right now, which has been encouraging to me. Well, I think that yeah, so 29, I'd say maybe a few years younger than me and a decent amount older than me. It's just like you kind of just got a front row seat to like the beginning of social media, the beginning of like where you could not escape it. Like there's been some key elections in the last 10 or 15 years, whatever, where like you go on social media and it's politics. You go in the paper, on the billboard, like everywhere is politics and it's all just like I don't know in your face. And I feel like that might have a little bit of um of of reason as to why like there's a generation or there's like a few years there that just don't love it and it's not like fun to talk about.

And that's the other piece too. This is my biggest pet peeve about the whole thing. I'm I've had a few monologues on this episode is like I truthfully can get along with someone and be their friend even if they have a different perspective than I do. And I think that there are generations all around. There are people all around that can't that literally it's just like oh because of you checked one box on whatever the thing might be like now we are no longer friends. And I'm like man everyone has complex stories and backgrounds.

Everyone has been through different experiences in their life than I have. And like I don't know, I think that is like my biggest piece that it's the world is not right or left or black or white or this or that. It is so much like the messy gray area in the middle. And I think that is what turns the most people off from politics is that if you get into it and all of a sudden a box is checked or you check a box for someone else and all of a sudden they're like, "Oh, well I hate you now." Like, "Oh, I'm going to go on the internet and talk smack about you." Even though we've only ever had one conversation and it was very cordial.

Yeah. And I think what I see a lot of is some people are burning bridges for sport is how I say it. And and you don't there's no point in that. Like I think it's better to have a good dialogue with someone than to say I disagree with you. Therefore, I'm not going to have this conversation. Even when I go to a county fair, you know, we go to Madison County, go to the Republican booth there, talk with a lot of fairgoers as they're coming through, I make a point to walk over to wherever the Democratic booth is, too, and just have a good conversation with them as well.

Like, we're not we're opponents on policy, but we're not enemies. Now, there's a lot of things that we disagree with, pretty vehemently disagree with on some of them. Um, but that's okay, too. I'm going to work really hard on my side to make sure we push good conservative policy. But also, I don't think, you know, that you you personally are a terrible person. I can't have a conversation with you.

Certainly, I can have a conversation with you and we're probably going to be out opposed on a lot of things, but that's okay, too. Let's keep having the dialogue. Yeah. But I that's just my piece. It's like you stop talking and it's all of a sudden like, oh, because again, whatever the box might be, this gets checked. Oh, well, everything that you have to say is silly and you know you and you also don't care about the state of Indiana or whatever it is.

And it's like, dude, come on. Have a little conversation there. Like, that's just the part that I think a lot of people get out on politics for. Even though at the end of the day that like those foundational bu building blocks that we talked about earlier, they're all the same. People just want Indiana to be the best version. They might have different u views or ideas of what the best version might be, but it's like all from a place of they want to move the state in a direction that you know where people love to be here.

They want to talk about it with respect and hold it in a high regard. And that's my biggest thing like I politics aside, right, left, anywhere, independent, yumo, whatever it might be, I just want people that want to make the state of Indiana uh a place that people are proud to be from. So when you walk into Chicago, this is how I feel like it it's been for a long time. You walk into another state, a big city, wherever it might be, they're like, "Where are you from?" And they put their head down. It's like, "I'm from Indiana."

It's like, "No, you got to be proud to be from Indiana. There's cool stuff going on." So whoever the politicians are that want to do that kind of thing and like get people excited and share that there's a ton to be proud on. Like is it perfect? No. Are we making, you know, one step a day to try to become a better place that is amazing?

Yes. And you just got to find I don't know that inner sense of pride to be a Hooer because it's so cool and there's so many great things. Yes. And I think Indiana is one of the only states in the Midwest that has net positive growth in the last number of years because people want to be here. It's a great state. We got to be proud of that and I always fully I uh I love it.

Okay. So I do I keep like going on these little tangents but you get you decide to jump in. It's you and there's three other uh candidates and then you have to then meet with was it 1,800 or 1300? 1,800. That's you have to then like try to, you know, get to know or or get let them know about you too with 1,800 delegates or calls I'm sure Zoom meeting in person doing all the stuff. Um take me through what the convention day looks like.

Like do you get up and make a a an extemporaneous speech? Yeah, that's right. Not that extemporaneous. we did plan, but um but it's a two-day process. Uh so the first day is mostly afternoon and evening. A lot of that is hearing from Republican leaders uh across the state.

And there's usually a guest speaker. Um we had Senator Kennedy came in from Louisiana and gave a really he's he's a hilarious guy, too. If you haven't heard him uh speak, he's a great guy. Um heard from those folks. And then each candidate hosts an event that evening that all the delegates can make the rounds to. So you get a chance to mingle and talk to them, get some there.

So we just had a big event um at the Pearl in Fort Wayne, which is where the convention was hosted. And really, it's a social event. And so you come, you you have some orves, you've got uh have a drink and then talk to the candidate. The candidate will then give a few remarks. A lot of times there's another uh guest speaker there as well to encourage folks to come out. Who's your guest speaker?

So Senator Banks was there. Um, we also had a lot of folks that have been involved in kind of the the big White House um, Trump folks that came out to speak as well, which was great. Um, and then really get the crowd hyped up. You come up and have a conversation. You know, what what do you stand for? What does it mean when you're pressing to win and just have a really good conversation?

Most of it's built for one-on-one though. Yeah. Yeah. I just like imagine like someone on the back of a tree stump just like giving a riveting, you know, five minutes of people are clapping and going crazy at the end. I love it. Okay, so then the big day comes.

Yep. So, Saturday happens. You get there early in the morning. They host a breakfast starting at 7:00 a. m. So, all the delegates can come out to that and there's more opportunity to shake hands and have discussions.

And then after they get through uh the party platform and voting on that to solidify it and then they get through uh a couple of additional housekeeping issues that the chairman of the convention puts on. Then the candidates come up and they give a uh it's 10 minutes total of speaking time that you get between your one uh person that comes up to nominate you uh and then you have they get two minutes and then you have eight minutes as the candidate to speak to the whole crowd. Yeah. And so uh we ended up having a video that took about 1 minute of that time. State Rep. Teshka gave my nomination.

Then we had one minute of video and then I came up and gave uh roughly a 5minute speech that outlines you know who you are, why do you have the best experience for it and then what are the policies that you want to press for moving into the general election into the office if the voters give you that responsibility. And then each candidate does that and then you go to vote and all the delegates are released. I was a delegate myself. you go to vote and you uh put in your who you vote for and then when they're done tallying that uh then they'll make the announcement from the stage. So if anybody gets 50% of the vote plus one uh they're a winner uh automatically. If nobody reaches 50% then the candidate that received the lowest number drops off and you vote again.

Wow. And so that would dude that would be stressful. Yeah. So and you ended up getting on the first ballot second ballot. Second. So, the first ballot comes out and uh somebody somebody gets voted off the island.

Yep. And then there's three of you. That's right. Dude, that would be nerve-wracking. Yeah, it was it was a very interesting experience, very cool experience, but also one where um I felt very very clearly that my job was again work hard and trust God and we felt very good about where we were in that in that scenario. And but you do have a lot of conversations with folks that maybe their primary candidate didn't win or was bumped off.

And so you're talking with them saying, "Here's, you know, ask me your questions. How can I help you get on board with where we're going?" Have a lot of those conversations and then voting starts again. Dude, that would be hard too to be a delegate. Cuz it's like on paper it's like you kind of like a lot of what people say. Like you know, you're all in the same party.

Everyone's like, "Okay, well you're hard on this issue. like maybe I like that issue, but I like this one a little bit more. It's like that'd be hard to know like to pick one of four. There's a lot of responsibility in it being a a delegate and you're also, you know, you take the temperature of the folks that you're representing too to say what do you think about all of this and then also take your own collected, you know, knowledge and experience into that and pick the best person. So, but round two came through uh press through one in the second round got more than you know we crossed the threshold at 53%. And um and then you immediately uh give your kind of closing remarks, thank the folks that are there, uh go talk to the media almost immediately afterward, sign the paperwork to actually file then as the nominee across the state for the general election.

Uh take a bunch of photos and then you're off to the general election. Like how did you feel like when they said that you had won? Like what was the internal feeling of, oh my gosh, I'm now going to be on the ballot for Secretary of State. So in the moment I don't think you really get to even have those feelings. Uh it is very much you know okay this is awesome but now let's move to the next step. What is the next step?

And um you know some folks said right after you win you'll have an opportunity to you know things will slow down for a minute. That that's entirely false. it immediately turns into uh working very hard to make sure you're building the team properly, that you've got your fundraising numbers under you and that you're pressing into the general election uh from the strongest perspective and and really there is no there are no days off uh in this. Your job is to uh represent where you stand on the issues, tell folks across the state what you want to do on the policy side to help make the state successful and that starts right away and presses all the way through November 3rd. One final piece I want to talk about is this is going to be an interesting election just based on all the candidates. Like I think that traditionally the state of Indiana it's like you know you have Republicans, you have Democrats, but like you also have a pretty well-known independent that's coming on board and it's like what do you what are your feelings about more people being in the mix and more voices being represented and another I think it's four like four candidates again.

Lucky number four I guess. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So there are four candidates. Um there is the the Democrat opponent, there's a Libertarian opponent, and then um rather than than purely independent, there's another opponent that is starting a new party.

He's starting the Lincoln party. Um I think I've yet to hear exactly what the platform is or what that means. Um and so I' encourage him to have that conversation. Um but it will be unique because um in Indiana, yes, there are we have a Republican majority. There are a lot of conservatives here. And I think that the the issue around this election cycle that what makes it particularly unique is not just the candidates that are in it, but that it's also once every 12 years you have a cycle where there is no governor running at the top of the ticket.

There's no senator running at the top of the ticket across the whole state. And so the statewide candidates are secretary of state candidates, the comproller candidates, and the treasurer candidates. And so you have to be the ones that then drive that energy, get your folks out to vote, understand the Those are the biggest three elections that we're going to have in November. That's correct. And like out of those, no offense to our finance friends, you know, we love finance, too, but definitely the eyes will go to the Secretary of State uh election from those three. Yes, absolutely.

It's the most contested. And so then you have a responsibility as that candidate to get your folks out, understand the importance of it, and get out and vote. And that's going to end up being the biggest key in this election. Well, uh, if people do want to learn more, if they want to, you know, dive in. Obviously, I I said kind of upfront, too. It's like this is not a super political podcast.

I'm not, you know, doing anything like that. It is get to know the people who are championing to make Indiana a better place. Whether you're on the right, whether you're on the left, like everyone deserves the opportunity to know a little bit more about the people that because a lot of times you walk in there and it's like you don't know from your local representative to the highest, you know, governing bodies. you never got a bio. There's not like fine print or italicized script. It's just like, oh shoot, which one was that one again?

And like maybe you do find one or two candidates throughout different elections that you really love. It is so hard to be like the most informed voter going in there because there's there's a lot going on. So, um, if people want to learn more about you, if they want to learn more about your story, how can they do that? So, number one way is maxforind indiana. com. It's very easy.

Max foind indiana. com. Uh, and if you know folks listening to this want to take home maybe two takeaways. Yeah. I'd say one is that I'm the candidate that has the most experience for this particular role. So I think it's important to run to win certainly, but you want to run so that you win to put in good policy in place so that you run the office professionally and you have the background to do that.

So whether it's uh small businesses where I've worked for plenty here in India and I've also filed my own small business there with the secretary of state's office. whether it's elections, working for the chief elections committee in the US House, whether it's legislative, doing like we talked about in both Washington and here in Indiana. Um, I have the most experience to actually do the role. Um, but then I think it's also important when you're looking at priorities, the priorities are election integrity. So, building on what we have here in Indiana, we've got strong elections, but we can be more proactive about ensuring uh that eligible folks are voting, that our voter roles are cleaned up, that people are participating in the process. Um, but then it's also transparency.

We're putting forward a transparency portal so anybody in any of the counties that you're going to around the whole state if they see something that they can put it directly into that portal and say to the secretary of state's office there may be an issue here maybe I see fraud maybe there's just a challenge let's go work that through and it empowers folks at the county level to submit information and then you know one thing that's come up here very directly is with all small businesses being registered in the secretary of state's office one of the things that we've seen is these chameleon carriers a little bit of that has come here in Indiana where a company that's a trucking company that's operating fraudulently will um create their LLC, register it at the Secretary of State's office, and then inside of that they'll employ folks here that shouldn't be driving on a road. So either they got a CDL when they shouldn't have a commercial driver's license when they shouldn't have from another state or they don't have English proficiency and it's hard to read the road signs, that kind of thing.

And over the last year, we've seen a number of people in Indiana that have been killed on the roads from these folks driving and then many that have been seriously injured, including recently in Porter County. I think the grandmother and her granddaughter had to be airlifted to separate hospitals because of a crash from a driver like this. But the challenge is that then if there is an issue like that, the [clears throat] company dissolves so they don't have to pay the repercussions of that and then they'll refile an identical LLC and then continue to do the same thing without being held accountable. And so this secretary of state's office has to do something with that data to work on that which like I think that one is one when I saw this as one of the things that you really um that it was like getting you fired up. I was like okay I don't know anything about shell trucking corporations like it's kind of like a very nuanced thing like you know when you think about it but then you hear that and you're like oh yeah like everyone like that seems wrong.

I don't know if that's like political. That's like, hey, we want to keep who's your drivers safe and uh and not have Yeah. that going on. Well, so much of it isn't political. There's a lot of divisions in the office where you just run a clean division to help hoosers. Make sure you execute professionally to help hers like Yeah.

Everybody wants uh like a fair election. They want it to be, you know, as fair and that people get to go out and choose who they want to be in in any office. And yeah, you talk about that part. I think everybody would agree that we want the safest drivers on the roads and all the things there. So, and I've got four kids and when my wife's driving them around or I'm driving them around, we're all together. I want to make sure we've got folks that are driving that um that are supposed to be I love it, man.

Well, Max, we've come to the end of the show where we have the same questions that we ask every guest who comes on. So, this first question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejart. com. My question for you, why do you call Indiana home?

One, I love the state of Indiana. Uh, two, uh, a lot of my family is here, all of my wife's family is here, and when I think where do I want to raise my kids, it's in an environment that, you know, who's your hospitality? It's an environment that values the family that wants to give you opportunity, where if you want to start a small business here and be successful, you can. And so all those things about Indiana, I very much appeal to me. I love it being back home here in the state of Indiana. There's not often that I get someone in the in the chair over there that has traveled the state of Indiana as much as I have.

That is not that's a humble brag. Humble brag. Uh so this will be really fun cuz from you know we talked about down to Clark County, Vandenberg County up to Porter and Lake County, like you're all over the place. I got to know what's a hidden gem in Indiana. So there's a few. Um is it okay if I give a few?

Okay. Okay. Okay. So, when you're looking at where do I want to go um get something to eat? Yeah. Um have you been to or heard about Bongis in Perkinsville?

Oh, yeah. Good. I haven't been though. I need to go. But I heard that now they have like they it used to be a whole experience where you would go and tailgate and it's like a a big thing where you'd wait for your reservation. Yeah.

So CO kind of changed some of that where now they take reservations but they still really lean into the tailgating and so while they do two sets of seating um you still get there early we'll get there sit in our camp chairs you know have a drink and then go in to get some really really good food and I love the fact that I think the uh the population of Perkinsville is less than 100 and to have a restaurant of that quality there and such a cool experience is awesome. Um, but I'd throw Okay, another hidden gem or maybe not even so much a hidden gem as just a really cool uh place to go is um and and normally you'd be thinking like you know natural wonders and I have some ideas on that too, but uh Rivet Coffee in the Ray Hall Performance Group. So that place is awesome. one, you've got high-end performance cars on one side, you've got a really good coffee shop in the middle, motorcycles on the other side, and then behind it, you've got the manufacturing, these vehicles that are going to be going at, you know, 200 mph uh down the down the track.

So, really awesome experience. Yeah. Um and then an event that's coming up that I feel everyone should be considering going to is the air show at Gryom Air Base. Oh. So, I go up there fairly often. and they've got this Gryom Regional Defense Alliance meeting where they're trying to figure out how do you make it successful, both the base and the folks that are on there that are not part of the military.

But coming up on August 29th, the 30th, uh there's an air show for 2 days there. The last time they had an air show was in 2019. And before that, the last time they had an air show was in 2003, I think. And so great opportunity to get up there and really experience something cool in Indiana. Wow. I love it.

Those are good. Those are good gems. I got to go check out the air show. Okay, next. This is your opportunity to uh share the love. This is where we get new guest ideas and learn about other people in the state that are making an impact.

Who's a who we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. So, you mentioned Marian earlier and um the mayor of Marian, Ronald Morurell Jr. , uh an excellent guy. He's done really, really good work in Marian, setting a new vision for it. Um and really being, you know, sort of a disruptor in a good way.

You want to throw new ideas out, change the perspective, and he's done an excellent job of that. Now, I will say um there's a he announced not too long ago that he was not going to run again for mayor in the next cycle. Now, I'm hoping that still changes. I'm hoping that he does run for mayor again. Um but he's someone that I'm certain no matter whether he's mayor of Marion or doing something else that we've not seen the last of. He's young guy.

Everybody loves him. He just got 40 under 40 in the last year and everyone raves about him and uh I I think I'm on a thread with him and I need to to uh probably have him on the show. But that's sad cuz I feel like well I mean it's good cuz probably he's probably doing something even crazier and cooler. Um but that's sad you know it's like oh wow people were getting really excited about Marion and the direction and all the fun stuff there. Yeah. And the good thing is that the way he's built it will continue marrying in a good direction.

like that's good. No matter whether he's at the helm or someone else is at the helm, but I do hope that he's um going to be doing big things here in the future and I expect that's the case. I love it. Okay, finally, when you think about all your time in Indiana from, you know, being a teenager in Cicero to downtown Indianapolis to traveling the entire state, when you close your eyes and think about it, what is your favorite Indiana memory? I mentioned that when I was in college, I helped build the extension on the community North Hospital and a lot of that was um working on all of the patient rooms in that building and um in the extension. So, a lot of my job uh especially for the last several months was, you know, pulling the concrete on the floor and and getting them prepped and and ready to go to to hand off as the we are the general contractor.

And in 2017, um, my son was born in one of the exact rooms that I built while I was in college at that hospital. And so having that full circle experience of just kind of washes over like, wow, this is a wild experience. Like I was here doing this and then now, you know, my son is born here in this exact room. I think probably one of the most impactful memories for me uh here in the state of Indiana. That's crazy. That is a full circle moment.

Amazing, dude. Well, hey, it's been a pleasure to learn more about you and hear your passion for Indiana. When I talk to politicians that do seem to like the state, I mean, obviously, I hope they all like the state of Indiana, but again, my gauge is always like, are they normal? Like, are they are they human beings? And uh yeah, I I just think that humanizing a little bit of politics is is good for the state and getting more people interested, involved, and informed in a way that, you know, again, gets people in the mix. Uh it's been a pleasure to sit down and learn more about you.

I get one last time, if people want to learn more, if they want to go follow you, if they want to see what you you've got or volunteer or do whatever, how can they do that? Yep. So they can do that on the website. It's max fo r indiana Indiana max4ind indiana. com and we would love volunteers as a tab there. But also it's just a way to look up, you know, my background, what our priorities are and how you can lean in.

And so I I very much appreciate anyone that would want to go there and appreciate the chance to jump on the show with you, too. It's you're doing an excellent job. I appreciate always looking at where you're going and then what I can do next based on what you There we go. Well, hey, we appreciate you and we'll talk to you soon. Sounds good. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater.

Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. [music] If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik [music] Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hooer State great. We'll [music] see you next time here on Get