Horning
Perennial Libertarian candidate Andy Horning launched a campaign last week to fill the soon-to-be vacant U.S. Senate seat, following Sen. Mike Braun’s decision to run for Indiana governor.
“The constitutional purpose of US. Senators is to be the voice of our sovereign states against the violation of constitutional restraints, concomitant encroachment and abuse of power and loss of individual human rights. For that fundamental, constitutional, legal purpose, Indiana has not had a U.S. Senator for generations,” Horning said in a release. “But there will be one such candidate for Indiana US Senate in 2024 — me.”
Previously, Horning ran against incumbent Rep. Larry Buschon in the eighth Congressional District, also as a Libertarian.
In his announcement, Horning urged voters to consider third-party candidates and reject his mainstream competition.
“Any vote for any major party candidate is a vote for a global puppet show of lobbyists, permanent partisan DC staffers, bureaucrats, bundlers, kingmakers, military industrialists and, increasingly, a relative few wealthy authoritarians scheming global domination and oppression behind the curtain of an unconstitutional, inherently divisive and destructive ‘Two Party System,’” Horning said. “… we embolden the status quo’s crony crime ring with our predictable votes of overwhelming approval.”
Traditionally, Libertarian candidates haven’t garnered the votes necessary to easily gain access to ballots — an issue under consideration in court — though the last Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Donald Rainwater netted an historic 11.4% of the vote in 2020.
Horning’s release named U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, both of Kentucky, as the “very best” Republican officeholders, but said they were “voluntary cogs in a machine bigger than any candidate.”
“The best Republicans (and there are many well-intentioned fine people in both major parties) can only waste our best efforts, money and time. They give us only false hope. They misappropriate our power of peaceful revolution. They waste our votes,” Horning said.
U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican, and retired state lawmaker Marc Carmichael, a Democrat, are also running for the U.S. Senate seat.
By Whitney Downard. The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, not-for-profit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
