Indiana justices, elections board kick GOP US Senate candidate off primary ballot

By ISABELLA VOLMERT
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The bipartisan Indiana Election Commission has voted unanimously to remove one of two Republican U.S. Senate candidates from the primary ballot. The state Supreme Court also rejected John Rust’s legal challenge to the law barring his candidacy. The rulings leave 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 GOP races.