ANDERSON — Sally Sloan was a student at Muncie Southside High School when Indiana’s former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh was campaigning. When his son, Evan Bayh, ran decades later, Sloan voted for him. And soon, she plans to order a Beau Bayh button — a large, blue-and-gold-rimmed photo of the 30-year-old candidate for secretary of state, inspired by a John F. Kennedy pin.
Sloan, formerly executive director of the Indiana chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, signed up to run to be a convention delegate just so she could vote for Bayh at the Indiana Democratic Party’s convention in June, she told IndyStar. (She lost her race but had already signed up to be an alternate just in case.)
What captivates Sloan, she tells IndyStar after a speech by Bayh at the AFT convention May 2, is the candidate’s youth, energy and commitment: qualities she said the Democratic Party sorely needs.
As attendees break for lunch, Sloan waits to snap a picture with Bayh.
“Eating is important,” Sloan says when someone asks if she’s planning to get lunch, “but this photo is more important.”
There’s no question that Bayh’s candidacy — particularly his name and multimillion-dollar fundraising haul — has reignited Democratic hopes of a statewide victory after more than a decade of defeat. Presenting himself as a foil to the drama swirling around current Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales, Bayh has opted to avoid partisan tangles and has instead kept laser-focused on what he views as restoring integrity to the office.
“The core message of this campaign is that it’s time for a better type of politics here,” Bayh told IndyStar on the car ride from Anderson back to Indianapolis.
But after prominent Republicans pulled their endorsements of the scandal-plagued Morales to back a last-minute entry to the race, Sen. Jim Banks staffer Max Engling, the calculus has been jumbled. If the efforts to oust Morales work, Democrats would likely see a much narrower path to victory in November.
It’s also a sign Republicans are nervous about Morales’ vulnerabilities. Now, Democratic convention delegates on June 6 must choose the candidate best equipped to take on the increasingly uncertain outcome of the GOP convention weeks later. But Democrats are fragmented, too: Bayh’s convention opponent, Blythe Potter, has tapped into brewing populist discontent about the direction of the party.
“We’re not putting up with the nonsense anymore,” Potter, 44, told IndyStar. “The status quo of politics being people getting elected for power, or for money, or to further their career… this really should be a service industry.”
Potter makes a case for her underdog campaign
Potter launched her campaign for secretary of state on her birthday in May 2025. It was a gift to herself, the Army veteran and mom, who currently works as an esthetician and massage therapist, told IndyStar.
The statewide bid is Potter’s most ambitious, though not her first, race. She ran unsuccessfully for Bargersville Town Council and Johnson County Council in 2023 and 2024.
This year more than ever, Potter said she is seeing rising grassroots momentum. More Indiana Democrats ran in state legislative primaries than they have in decades, and they filed for local offices in some counties in record numbers. And while progressives didn’t fare all that well in the recent primary election, there was a clear anti-incumbent sentiment among both political parties.
Potter’s willingness to challenge what she views as the status quo has put her somewhat at odds with the Democratic Party establishment, who she described as less-than-enthused about her candidacy.
But despite a relative lack of party support or funds — she raised a little over $150,000 as of the end of March when the last quarterly report was due — Potter thinks she has a path to victory and sees her race as a larger referendum on the direction of the party. To her, the old style of campaigning is over; Potter specifically pointed to 2016, when former U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh lost a bid to reclaim a Senate seat against Republican U.S. Sen. Todd Young in an open race.
“It’s history, it is true,” Potter said. “We are losing and it is time that we do something different.”
She’s not the only Democrat calling for a new approach to persuading Indiana voters. It’s a highly unusual time in politics, said Monroe County delegate Michelle Higgs, who’s supporting Potter, and the way out is by mobilizing the disengaged and disaffected: something she thinks Potter can tap into.
But a state party convention, where candidates need only persuade the majority of 2,560 highly engaged Democratic voters, is very different from the dynamics of a general election. And many of those delegates are aware of her relative lack of financial resources.
“Winning is the point,” Kim Saylor, a Marion County delegate who’s been a part of several Democratic campaigns in the past, told IndyStar in an email, “and at this point I don’t see how Blythe Potter can.”
Potter has argued that campaigns are about more than just money and said she believes she has a better shot at winning the general election.
Bayh’s $2.4 million haul
Bayh, a commercial lawyer, Harvard University alum and former U.S. Marine Corps captain, is measured when he lays out his vision: less party politics and divisiveness, more good governance and civility.
He comes from a long line of such politicians. His grandfather, former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, authored two constitutional amendments while in Congress — the only non-Founding Father to do so — and led the effort to ban sex-based discrimination in education. His father, former U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, served as Indiana secretary of state before becoming governor, where he positioned himself as a centrist and ended his tenure with a nearly 80% approval rating.
For some older Democrats, the name Bayh evokes nostalgia for what Higgs describes as “the era of the statesman” — a time where politicians like Bayh’s grandfather thrived.
“I believe that’s what Beau Bayh is trying to bring back,” Higgs said. “However, this is 2026.”
Many Democrats still think he can, particularly with a $2.4 million fundraising haul as of the end of March that is already more than double what the previous Democratic candidate raised in the entire 2022 election cycle.
But the name and money combo that excites Democrats has also been a point of contention. Potter and others in the party’s progressive wing have criticized Bayh for accepting a $25,000 donation from Marc Rowan, a private equity CEO who’s aligned with Trump. Meanwhile, Republicans have castigated Bayh for the time he’s spent on the east coast, where he went to school.
Bayh argues he’s far from the only politician to receive an elite education — after all, Gov. Mike Braun went to Harvard, too — and has instead put the focus on what he’ll do with the office. That includes fighting “corruption and wasteful spending” with an independent audit of the office; similarly, Potter has promised to “end no-bid contracts, ban nepotism in hiring, and stop taxpayer-funded luxury travel,” according to her website.
It’s an obvious knock at Morales, who has been criticized for hiring family members, using taxpayer funds to purchase a luxury vehicle and taking international trips. Both Bayh and Potter are hoping they can mobilize anti-Morales sentiments to beat him in the general election, though they both would have to close the 14-point gap that separated Morales from his last challenger in 2022. And any Morales-related plan could be thwarted if party insiders choose challengers David Shelton, Jamie Reitenour or Engling at the GOP convention in June.
Contact breaking politics reporter Marissa Meador at mmeador@indystar.com or find her on X at @marissa_meador.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: With Diego Morales on thin ice, who will Democrats choose as their nominee?
Reporting by Marissa Meador, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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