The bipartisan Indiana Election Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to remove one of two Republican U.S. Senate candidates from the primary ballot, and the state Supreme Court rejected his legal challenge to the law barring his candidacy.
The decision to remove John Rust from the ballot leaves U.S. Rep. Jim Banks as the only GOP candidate for the seat.
Rust had sued state officials over Indiana’s law requiring that candidates must have voted in their party’s past two primaries or received the approval of a county party chair in order to appear on the primary ballot.
Rust voted as a Republican in the 2016 primary but as a Democrat in 2012. He said he didn’t vote in the 2020 Republican primary due to the pandemic and the lack of competitive Republican races in Jackson County, and that his votes for Democrats were for people he personally knew.
The county’s Republican Party chair said in a July meeting with Rust that she would not certify him, according to the lawsuit. Rust has said she later cited his primary voting record.
The Election Commission — composed of two Republicans and two Democrats all appointed by the governor — voted unanimously to accept the challenges and remove Rust from the ballot.
“The affiliation statute applies to Mr. Rust just like it applies to all other candidates in the state,” Ryan Shouse, an attorney representing five of the six individuals challenging Rust’s candidacy, told the commission.
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