Political polls are showing a tight race for the Indiana secretary of state, with Republican nominee Max Engling and Democrat Beau Bayh within a few percentage points of each other. Polling figures circulating online show Engling with 38% support to Bayh’s 37%, according to a poll from Hoosier Leadership for America, a political group associated with U.S. Sen. Jim Banks. Libertarian Lauri Shillings had 6% support and independent Greg Ballard 5%, with 14% undecided in the poll of likely voters taken Sept. 27-30.
Bayh’s campaign released figures from an early September poll showing Bayh ahead of Engling 42%-36%, with Ballard and Shillings both at 5% and 12% undecided. That poll of likely voters was taken Sept. 1-3, about three weeks after Bayh had started statewide television advertising and before Engling’s broadcast ads began in mid-September.
Ballard’s campaign criticized the Hoosier Leadership for America poll, stating it came from a dark-money group that gave an improper $60,000 contribution to Engling’s campaign. The campaign said, “If they think these numbers for Mayor Ballard are accurate, why are they spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to attack him on TV?”
Shillings expressed encouragement from the poll, stating, “Just 10% in this race changes Indiana politics forever. It sends a clear message that we’ve had enough and we aren’t going to be manipulated anymore. This poll has us at a strong 6% in a Republican sponsored poll. With 14% still undecided, we can make it past the 10% mark and send a clear, undeniable message to those who stopped listening to us long ago.”
Engling’s campaign also circulated a video endorsement from 1980s TV series “Dukes of Hazzard” star John Schneider, who described himself as “the original Bo.” Schneider, an outspoken President Donald Trump supporter from Louisiana, said in the one-minute video that Engling is “a real conservative, a real Republican with real experience” and disparaged Bayh. “I want you to listen to this Bo, OK?” Schneider said. “Not the other Beau. I mean, come on, he’s a cute kid, but he’s a cute kid who’s a Democrat running on Republican values and a Republican platform.”
