Sen. Mike Young apologizes, calls FOP endorsement on campaign flyer an error
When state Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, got home from a campaign event Friday night, he checked his mail. Like many other Republican primary voters in his district, which represents parts of Marion and Hendricks counties, he received a mailer from his own campaign.
He flipped it to the back and saw a generic Fraternal Order of Police logo, implying an endorsement.
"And my heart sunk," he said.
Not because the police union's endorsement isn't an enviable one to have in a competitive Republican primary, like Young's race, but because he hadn't actually received an endorsement. The logo didn't have any specifications signifying which FOP it would have referred to, such as the Indiana state FOP or the Indianapolis lodge. Nonetheless, Young said it was a mistake.
"I don’t even know why it got on there or who decided to put it on there," he said. "Why would I want to do that and get called out by law enforcement? We wouldn’t do that."
Young, who has served in the state legislature 38 years, is facing a challenger in his primary this year: newcomer Philip Clay, a real estate investment banker and co-founder of Arthur Clay and Co., a professional development organization for young Black men. The race for Senate District 35 in the southwest part of Marion County is among the most competitive in central Indiana this May ― the two candidates have spent roughly the same amount of money fighting one another, and Clay, starting from scratch, has raised nearly double the cash Young has.
More: These central Indiana Statehouse races are contested. Here's who is on your ballot.
Pressed on how the mistake could have happened, Young said he doesn't know whether it was an error by the printer or a campaign staffer, but that he wouldn't be looking into it further.
"I'm not going to blame it on anybody else, because it's my responsibility," he said.
When the mailer came out, state FOP board president William Owensby received some text messages from bewildered members. But Young called him the next day to apologize and to discuss how it happened and what Young's next steps would be. Young said he commissioned a mass text to Republican primary voters in the district explaining the mishap.
"He was on it fairly quickly," Owensby said of Young. "I was satisfied with that phone call."
Young also called Clay to apologize. Clay had seen the mailer at a voter's home while door-knocking for his campaign. Clay, however, is skeptical, calling it a "convenient slip."
"Mike’s been running campaigns for nearly four decades," Clay said. "The thought of him doing something by accident in this regard is really hard for me to believe."
The state FOP did endorse Young in 2020, during his general election campaign. The state union generally doesn't endorse in primaries at all, with two exceptions during this election for candidates who are first responders and are facing primary competition: Rob Miller, a former fire chief from Huntington County running for state representative, and Brett Clark, a former sheriff in Hendricks County running for state senate.
Clay also claimed in a news release that the flyer's listed endorsement from the Indiana State Police Alliance is false. But this is not true: The organization's logo and endorsement are legitimate, ISPA Executive Director Cory Martin told IndyStar.
Clay said he will revise his news release.
This wouldn't be the first questionable endorsement of this election cycle. A Republican candidate in Indiana's 7th Congressional District race, Gabe Whitley, shared an endorsement from a veterans group that may or may not exist.
Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter@kayla_dwyer17.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana Sen. Mike Young apologizes for false FOP endorsement on flyer
