Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
NORTH WEBSTER - All the top GOP state candidates and officials reminded the Republicans at Thursday night’s Kosciusko County Republican Party Hall of Fame Dinner of why they believe it’s important for all Republicans to get out and vote on Tuesday.
Elise Nieshalla
Elise Nieshalla, incumbent state comptroller, holding on to a quilt from Steve and Karen Foster as Nieshalla is a new grandma, said, “It’s our children and our children’s children that motivates us deeply to do what we do, to keep the Republic, to keep Indiana financially strong, and serving as Indiana’s comptroller, I can tell you tonight beyond a shadow of a doubt that our state is in a strong and stable financial position.”
She told the young people at the dinner they could have confidence they have chosen a state where they can build their families and businesses and have a “rock solid” foundation.
Over 20 years ago, Indiana wasn’t always like this, Nieshalla said, as the Democrats were in charge.
“Don’t you know it, they spent like crazy and we only had 6 cents in the general fund reserve when they closed the books in the year 2002. Can you believe that? And it gets a little worse,” she said. “To be able to close the books in the black, they delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to our schools. They also spent down a $2 billion reserve, the other reserve funds, by 74%. We literally can not afford to go back to Democratic leadership in the state of Indiana. We worked for too long to fix what they did to us.”
She said Indiana has gone from 6 cents to “common sense, and now, again, after two-plus decades of Republican leadership, that 6 cents has turned into $1.86 billion surplus. We also now have well-funded pensions, we’ve earned a Triple-A credit rating and we have a balanced budget amendment that has become a part of our state’s constitution due again to Republican leadership that is the gold standard among the states. It has real teeth to it.”
Lana Keesling
Lana Keesling, Indiana Republican Party chairwoman, said, “We have five days until the polls close on Tuesday at 6 p.m., but we have a lot of work and I know those of you in this room are the grassroots of your county and you do the majority of the work, but I have an ask for all of you. My ask is to make sure you talk to your neighbors, your friends and your family and you get them out to vote. There’s never been a more important election, and I know we say that a lot, but election integrity, that means a lot to us, right? Can you imagine us not keeping the secretary of state position? Imagine what that would do to the state, and that’s just an opening that the Democrats could take and run with.”
Max Engling is the Republican candidate for Indiana secretary of state, after beating out incumbent Diego Morales at the June 20 Republican convention. Engling faces Democrat Beau Bayh, Independent Greg Ballard and Libertarian Lauri Shillings in the Nov. 3 election, with recent polls having Engling and Bayh in a close race.
Keesling said it’s been years since the Democrats have held leadership in Indiana.
“Elise talked about before 2004 when we had 6 cents in the bank, and since then things are amazing in Indiana,” she said. “We have a Triple-A credit rating. We are one of only 16 states with economic growth. We are a red state and we are moving in the right direction, and we have to stay that way.”
She noted they started the Crossroads Tour on Wednesday and it was going great as they travel across the state with Engling. She called him the right guy for the job and said they need to make sure he gets over the finish line.
Keesling also said Nieshalla did great her first term and deserves a second term. Nieshalla faces Democrat Jessica Bailey and Libertarian John Schick in the election.
She gave a shoutout to state Treasurer Daniel Elliott, who is being challenged in the election by Democrat Coumba Kebe.
Elliott “has taken our surplus money and invested it. In his first three years, fiscal years, as being the state treasurer, earned Indiana almost $2 billion in investment money from taking our surplus. Imagine what that does for the state. That’s money that we don’t have to pay it, the state government, as taxes.”
She reiterated the need for all Republicans to get out and vote to keep Indiana “moving in the right direction.”
“Remember, when Republicans come out, Republicans win and we see that time and time again on election cycles. You can look at 2016, 2018 and other years when the media had us losing. When Republicans show up, Republicans win. We have five days. Let’s get out the vote. Let’s carry all of our candidates over the finish line on Tuesday,” Keesling concluded.
Daniel Elliott
Elliott, who was elected state treasurer in 2022, said, “Here’s the point: It’s time, guys. It’s time to show up. It’s time to get things done. I can sit here and talk about all the great fiscal work we’ve done over the last few years in my office, and I would love to, but the reality is, you guys know that. If you’re here, I don’t have to convince you why we need this. If you’re a Republican, you know why we have to get behind our Republican ticket.”
He said his opponent - Kebe - “thinks that we should take the treasury dollars - she’s an abortion activist who hates ICE by the way - she thinks we should use the treasury dollars to fund universal health care. So, c’mon, guys. This is who we’re dealing with.”
He also commented on Bayh and his shooting skills, adding Democrats have to pretend to be Republicans to get any kind of traction.
“So what ‘us’ needs to do is get out the vote. We need to get out there, we need to get behind Max, we need to get behind Elise. I need your help. We need to help (2nd District U.S. Congressman) Rudy (Yakym). We’ve got to help all of our Republicans,” Elliott stated.
Like Keesling, he asked everyone to get out and vote and get others to get out and vote Republican.
Rudy Yakym
Yakym said he had to attend the dinner with one simple message and “that is that Republicans have delivered and the time has come to get out and vote.”
Talking about what Republicans have done over the last two years, he said, “Under President Trump and House Republican leadership, this Congress passed the Working Families Tax Cut. It’s the biggest middle-class tax cut in American history. What it also is, is it’s the largest spending cut in American history. We cut $1.6 trillion in that bill, and we also made the 2017 tax cuts permanent. We delivered on things like no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, tax relief for seniors. We provided for an enhanced child tax credit. The largest elevation of the standard deduction in American history. We protected small businesses and the deductions that they take. And, yes, we created Trump Accounts.”
He said they have put “real money” back into people’s paychecks because it’s their money.
“My belief is, that you know how to spend your money better than the federal government knows how to spend your money, so therefore you should keep more of it, and that’s exactly what we did during the Working Families Tax Cut,” Yakym said.
At the same time, he said, they secured the southern border, ended programs like Catch and Release, are building the border wall and are not going back.
“Democrats want to take this country back. They want to reopen the borders. They want to increase your taxes. Let’s not forget our Border Security bill and our tax cut bill, every single Democrat voted against those things. Every single Democrat came out and said we want open borders, we want to increase your taxes because they don’t think you pay enough. Everything I just talked about, hits home in Kosciusko County,” Yakym stated.
He talked about the various manufacturing, agriculture and recreational offerings that exist in Kosciusko County. He mentioned the new investment coming in, like Slate Auto and Autocam Medical.
“Because businesses know that when they look at places like Kosciusko County, this is a place that still values hard work. You value good skills. You value common sense and your Republican leaders here in this community fight every day to make sure that those values stay real and you have the ability to grow your own business and live your life as you so choose. It doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because at the local level, the state level, and, yes, even the federal level, you go to the polls and you decide to put the right leaders in the right places in elected positions,” Yakym said.
That can all change if Democrats are elected, he said, so Republican voters need to turn out Tuesday.
Max Engling
Keynote speaker for the dinner was Engling.
“In this (secretary of state) race, my opponent has said that he thought it was unduly burdensome, it’s too difficult, to verify that they’re U.S. citizens to be voting in our elections. Now that was a little bit of a wild statement when I first heard it. I had to raise my hand in rebuttal on the debate stage and ask a secondary question to make sure I heard that right because that’s the baseline of the job of the chief elections officer in the state of Indiana,” Engling said. “But he doubled down on it. We have to have somebody here in Indiana that understands election integrity. That has the background to do this and that would pursue that on your behalf here in the state.”
He talked about the socialists running and winning in the Democratic Party primary and how the Democrats can’t come out and speak against the socialists because the Democrats know the socialists control the party.
On his own background, Engling, one of eight kids, said he’s a Christian and has been married for 15 years. He and his wife have four kids, ages 10 to 3.
“And a huge part of why I’m in this race at all is because we are doing things really well in the state of Indiana. Folks want to come here. They’re moving out of Michigan to come here, they’re moving from Illinois to come here. No one is going from Indiana to Illinois. We’re a net positive growth state in the Midwest and I want my kids to choose when they’re adults to stay here and put their roots down here. I want your kids and your grandkids to make that same decision: To want to stay here, to bring your business here, to put your roots down here. So running hard to make sure that we build on the good things that are happening here in the state of Indiana,” Engling said.
He worked through college, going to Ivy Tech at first and then IUPUI for his degree. He later went back and got a master’s degree from the U.S. Naval War College.
When Engling graduated, he worked for a small business for a couple years. He then worked for the Chief Elections Committee in the U.S. House, followed by working for the Republican leadership.
Eventually, he moved back to Indiana and for the last three years has been traveling the state talking to Hoosiers. He did that working for, among others, U.S. Sen. Jim Banks.
“So as I’ve done that, we’ve pivoted now into this run, and there’s three main priorities that I’m running on,” Engling said.
Those are election integrity, transparency and “stopping the business filing fraud that we’ve seen around some parts of the state, especially in the logistics or trucking industry.”
On the urgency of this election, Engling said, “This is a 12-year cycle where every 12 years the statewide ticket is the top of the ticket. It’s myself, it’s Daniel Elliott, it’s Elise Nieshalla. I’m humbled to run alongside them. We have an excellent ticket, but there is no air cover from a U.S. senator, from a governor or from a President Trump or anyone running on top of the ticket. It’s up to the statewide ticket and the excellent candidates that are in this room to get folks to understand if you like what Indiana is doing, if you want to build on the solid work that we have going for us here, build on the strength of Indiana, you have to get out and vote in this election.”
