State Sen. Chris Garten made his bid for the Indiana Senate’s top leadership position official on Monday, days after outgoing Senate President Pro Tempore Rod Bray announced he’d yield to redistricting revenge by President Donald Trump and allies.
“Our caucus stands at a defining moment, and the challenges ahead demand bold, focused leadership,” Garten, R-Charlestown, said in a news release. “… I am committed to driving a conservative, Indiana First agenda and I am ready to deploy my experience to ensure our campaign apparatus is intentional and ambitious to secure and expand our supermajority.”
Bray, R-Martinsville, said Friday that he will not seek reelection as pro tem when Senate Republicans choose their leaders in November, but will continue serving in the Senate. His term runs through 2028.
The two men were on opposite sides of the December vote rejecting Trump’s congressional redistricting push, which came after months of lobbying and public pressure from Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Gov. Mike Braun and national pro-redistricting groups.
The proposed new map was drawn midway through the typical Census-based cycle to produce a 9-0 Republican congressional delegation. Twenty-one Republicans joined all 10 Democrats to defeat it in a 31-19 vote.
Garten resigned as majority floor leader in June — four years after Bray appointed him to the Senate’s No. 2 Republican post — saying he no longer aligned “with the current strategic direction of leadership.”
National money and pressure has continued flowing into Indiana.
Trump, who had vowed “to take out” Bray in a January social media post, endorsed challengers — backed by millions of dollars in spending by national pro-redistricting groups — to the eight GOP senators on the ballot who voted against the redraw.
Six paid for that opposition in primary defeats in May, with one race still pending and just one incumbent winning outright. A Trump-backed candidate also won an open-seat primary.
Bray’s decision cited promises to recruit and fund primary challengers against senators who support his bid for another leadership term. He said he wouldn’t put members of his caucus at risk for backing him.
Garten was first elected to the Senate in 2018. He was unopposed in the Republican primary in his bid for reelection to a third term. While he and Bray disagreed on redistricting, they voted similarly on many other key topics.
Members of the Senate Republican caucus will ultimately choose their leader after the November election, and others could join the race.
Garten named who would be his No. 2 in leadership should he win — Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford — “after direct input” from caucus members.
“A strong, united caucus requires a high-caliber leadership team, and there is no one more qualified to share in that responsibility than Senator Eric Koch,” Garten said. “Eric is an elite strategist, an accomplished attorney, and a deeply respected leader with judgment beyond reproach. In the floor leader seat, he will be a powerful driver of our conservative agenda for Hoosiers.”
Koch, who has served in the Senate since 2016, previously spent about 14 years in the Indiana House. He is not on the ballot this year.
“Senator Garten understands that a supermajority is not self-sustaining — it has to be earned every cycle and held together every day of session,” Koch said. “… Our shared priorities are simple: listen to members, empower our team, and move a conservative agenda with discipline and purpose that delivers on the priorities Hoosiers have trusted us to advance.”
Garten and Koch have committed to meeting with caucus members in the coming weeks to understand their legislative priorities and “discuss a path forward to unite the caucus,” according to the news release.
The pro tem has authority to pick Senate committee chairs, direct bills to particular committees and broadly set the Senate’s agenda.
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