By GARRETT BERGQUIST
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
A challenger to Jim Banks’ Senate bid claims that party insiders are keeping him off the 2024 ballot.
John Rust this week filed a lawsuit in Marion County court claiming Jackson County Republicans are using a new state law to rule him ineligible to run in next year’s Republican Senate primary. The law requires that anyone who wishes to run in a party primary either vote in that party’s primary in the two most recent election cycles or be certified by their county’s party chair.
Rust’s filing claimed he did not vote in the 2020 Republican primary due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so he asked Jackson County Republican Party Chair Amanda Lowery to provide written certification. She refused, citing the lack of a 2020 vote and Rust’s past votes in Democratic primaries for candidates he said he knew personally.
Rust claims Lowery’s actions and the candidacy law violate both the state and U.S. constitutions because they have led to him being treated differently from other candidates.
“The statute makes it so only a small percentage of Hoosiers and those hand-selected by the party chair are eligible to run for office,” attorney Michelle Harter wrote.
Rust’s lawsuit names Lowery, Secretary of State Diego Morales, and the Indiana Election Commission as defendants. The filing asks a judge to rule the primary eligibility law unconstitutional and block any further efforts to keep Rust off the 2024 ballot.
Lowery did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the filing.